Armada: Blue skies and ONI lies
by MightBeGone
Summary: Between Aliens, Insurgents, Flood and possible friendly fire, ex-ONI now ODST Corporal Lee thinks he should've died by now, dropped into a warzone on a planet of "Major" importance, with a mission that goes wrong from the start, Lee is immediately thrust into a shady warzone underlined with ONI secrets and no end of Covenant soldiers willing to end his life. Rated M for a reason.
1. Prologue

**Guess who has some free time and an unscratchable itch for a halo fic, don't expect frequent updates as this has taken about 1258 minutes - MBG**

 **p.s. I'd also like to give a shoutout to kilroactual117 for being an amazing help with this, not only a beta but just helping with this in general, I suggest you read his fics and check him out, he has some amazing stories too, thank you, for all your help.**

"talk"

Description

 _Thoughts_

 **Scene**

 ** _emphasis_**

[Other]

Wording failures:

 **1: (glancing shit to the helmet, the left side...) [extra "S"]**

 **2: (it took leet a few seconds…) [leet is an old meme, let's not bring it back]**

I would like to state that this fic takes place between Halo's 4&5, the armours are in production, a few are out, but spartan abilities, as bullshit as they were, barely make an appearance in this fic.

Also, this fic is a loose-second person fic, while I will be stating things the protagonist might not already know, I won't explain things they'd have no clue about.

"They." As in, more than one? Naw.

 **Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 20:34**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Two hours after drop.**

As the dark grasp of night clawed its fingers into the northern side of the planet, subjecting the UNSC task force to the horror of the night, along with a foreboding and obscuring mist, one thought plagued Corporal lee's mind, refusing to leave unless addressed:

 _why even bother making plans? It all goes to shit it's not li-_

Lee's mind promptly stomped rambling. As every member of the five-hundred-man task force became tense, weapons up, facing forward, Lee did the same. His M395 Designated Marksman Rifle or DMR flew up from his previously relaxed stance.

Lee, like all ODST Troopers, had customized his weapon. On the right side of the stock was a bleeding love heart with a grey skull fitting in the center. Printed in block capitals read ' _Skull Heart_ ', taken from Lee's favorite childhood game. This was irrelevant as it wouldn't save him from the approaching enemy. He aimed the weapon towards the pitch-black mist, and the shadows of what seemed like ninety imposing figures slowly marching towards them.

The lieutenant, who was a blonde woman by the name of Impoget. The irony was not lost on the other troopers, who referred to her as IMP, an ode to her hellish personality. Jax had witnessed that firsthand after handing her a cloth wrapped folder that carried a lot of bad omens.

She held her hand up in a fist, and many of the troopers halted, while a few took point. Lee wondered why for a second, then saw the same thing on his HUD that Impoget must've saw on her Wrist mounted TACPAD. Blue dots, blinking where the figures were, started to come out the mist. Upon closer examination Lee saw their green outlines.

They didn't look human, they looked-... A Marine to the left of Lee voiced Lee's thoughts exactly.

"Holy shit is that a **_Spartan_**?" Gasped the marine.

Lee could feel it in the air. Many of the force had lowered their weapons, a few dropped them in awe. The moral of the task force had boosted with the arrival of so many merciless killing machines.

Lee holstered his DMR on his back and reached for Jack's Magnum off his thigh. He had looted the Magnum from Jack's corpse; a few minutes after the drop. Lee had run out of ammo on his own Magnum, and figured picking one up was better than scouring a corpse for ammo. The weapon was easier to carry around, and lighter too.

Jax had originally arrived at the rendezvous with a ragtag group he had come across after the drop. Compromising of three members from his squad, two other ODSTs he had happened upon, one he had been partnered with on a previous OP. Five Alderwood police officers, who were currently at the back of the task force, and a lot of Marines, which he probably wouldn't see again.

While Lt. IMP _nutface_ was talking to the Spartan task force leader the other Spartans joined the main task force, presumably under instructions through their in-helm radio military secret radio channel. _I would kill for one of those_ , thought Lee, _I could mute Martinez every time he opens his damn mouth. At least the Spartans have shut him up, but not for long though_.

Martinez always talked, and never stopped, after joining the Navy from a young age, Martinez had ended up realizing he had no privacy, and often talked for ages on end as a result. Lee found it ironic. Lee made it no secret he liked to be alone, however he was about to be stuck with company he couldn't refuse.

A Spartan made its way to him. Lee stood in awe of the six or seven-foot beast. The Iconic helmet intimidated him… VIPER. The singular eye embedded in the visor, and the little _antenna?_ On the back, imposing and unapologetic. Lee heard these ones were good, and hellish; They were the fastest but were extremely aggressive, little patience.

Lee took the sight in. Down from the helmet was a spartan grade chest plate which looked like it had little wings on the back. The right shoulder was equipped with a guard, flat, but around the side of the arm. While the left used a slightly more rounded shoulder plate. The Spartan's legs were covered by Bulky square armour, which reminded Lee of a cargo train, and its forearms had been dressed in what Lee's would describe as sleek armour.

The pitch black colour of its armour followed by the Dark blue stripes made it an imposing figure to have approach you. Lee understood this in detail.

The Spartan required one thing of Lee. "Name? Rank?" it spoke in a filtered voice. It took Lee a few seconds to realize it was talking to him,

"Corporal Lee Sir!" he responded enthusiastically

His voice faltered. Lee was sure he could hear Martinez sniggering behind him. _The fucking cuntwaffle is probably loving this._ Lee, however, couldn't voice his thoughts.

The Spartan paused before talking again,

"Full name, I like to know who I'm working with" It said in an impatient tone

This did not bode well or do anything to calm Lee; _I'm supposed to be free falling from space for a living not talking to massive death robots._ He thought exasperatedly.

"Oh, the name is, Jax"  
Jax was extremely scared, and could barely get his words out.

"Good, you're the one. Come with me. Command wants us to recon the area near our objective." The Spartan pointed over its shoulder at the lead Spartan in conversation with IMP. Paused, shook its head then continued.

"I hope you know how to use that thing," it said, pointing to Jax's DMR, this is going to be recon and eliminate OP. I don't want to be kissing lips with any covies."  
The Spartan proceeded to walk away leaving a somewhat scared Jax to race up to it.

"we're going to have to be quiet. Put a suppressor on that thing," The Spartan said as it pointed to Jax's DMR, "we're going on foot. Follow me."

The Spartan muttered under its breath, Jax was just close enough to hear it, "This fucking plan, they never work."

Lee was grateful for the confidence boost.


	2. Chapter 1: The start of something dismal

**UNSC FIGHTER FRIGATE '** _ **FFG-264 BORN IN SLIPSPACE**_ **' Above Armada, 2563, 16:27**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Two hours before drop.**

Jax sat in the Armory. His newly issued and customized DMR was laid on a table, intact, but missing a scope. The scope in question, was disassembled next to his standard issue ODST helmet. Jax was currently fidgeting around with the components of the scope. He paused, relaxed against the back of the chair, and remembered the speech he was given when issued the helmet.

"Jumping feet first into hell isn't your job; making sure it's crowded when you get there is."

Pleased with his work, Jax re-assembled his scope before fixing it back to his gun, grabbing it by the barrel, and clipping the weapon onto his back. he then picked up his helmet.

The Visor was standard black as was most ODST Helmets were unless you belonged to the special companies, or the spooks. His helmet had a white stripe from the top down the back. He put in on, and clicked it into place.

Jax stood up and walked out from the room. The rows upon rows of weapons, locked into wire mesh lockers, were an eyesore when you know you couldn't keep them all. Jax quickly made his way to the pod bay where his four other teammates were waiting.

Jax was the newest member of the team, having joined a meagre two missions ago, as the last team he had been with was completely wiped out on a botched night strike, before that he had been under the direct control of ONI, but transferred to the ODST branch after giving up the shady life.

Captain Smith was sitting atop a crate talking to the other three present members of the team. He paused, noticing the new arrival.

"Ah, Corporal Lee. How nice of you to join us. I would ask for an excuse, but I don't think I could give you any Leeway." The Captain laughed at his own pun, while the now four other members of the team collectively groaned. Jax would normally get shit from other captains, but Captain Smith was in a good mood, for the time being, Jax knew personally his mood could sour in an instant, but Jax still trusted him as The Captain had proved to Jax his role as a heavy multiple times.

"Don't mind him Jax," Melody said in a soft, calming tone "Come on. We've just finished, I'll fill you in on what you missed."

The woman was Melody, well, that was Jax's nickname for her, as her voice was smoother than ice. To the rest of the team, she was Maddie. She was lethal with an SMG, Horrid with anything else.

She stood to his right, her tall frame leaning against the table. On it rested a map, of the megacity. Alderwood, which was currently Covenant occupied.

Melody spoke up again. "We're going in at six. The night won't come up for another two hours after that. Which gives us plenty of time to clear up and regroup with the taskforce down there."

Captain Smith spoke up, filling Jax in on the finer details.

"ONI says something came up on their scans, and there's a fuck-ton of Covies down there too, so two birds with quite a lot of fucking stones, us, being the stones, there's a few agents down there, as well as what's left of the city's defenses, which is a lot, considering it takes four days to get to one side to the other by plane." The Captain realized he was rambling, apologized, shook his head and focused on the task at hand.

"Get in there, link up with the rendezvous, then, find the ONI agents, as in, three, and take back the city, bit by bit, we have full support from the UNSC for the next three months, including reinforcements, vehicles, supplies, all that good shit, Gray team are sitting this one out so the responsibility of finding ONI's toy falls to Dirty platoon, we'll be backup once we get our shit done."

The Captain, after finishing his speech, turned to Martinez, who was currently in a heated discussion with Warden.

The two were talking in aggressive tones about the plan. Martinez was currently arguing that the SMG he had been issued would do 'Jack Shit' in the urban warzone against the alien horde. Warden made a very compelling point. well, to Jax anyway.

 _'If the chief can make it work, you can too, it's him that's modified, not his guns.'_ hissed Warden.

Captain Smith, having grown tired of this exchange, shouted to be heard over the two bickering soldiers.

"Martinez, do you know how to use that gun?" His face now beet red, and reminded Jax of his old training instructor. He was probably dead by now.

"Yes Sir, I do." Martinez shouted sarcastically, fed up with the conversation before it began. _damn. Talking that way to an officer. This guy's got balls, or a death wish_

"No. You. Do. Not!" The Captain was shouting now, louder than before, "You do not! You do as you're told and rip them apart, shoot or be killed. Am I understood?" The Captain's Southern accent started to become more pronounced with every word.

"Sir yes sir!" Martinez shouted back at the Captain, his enthusiasm having gone up significantly.

The Captain turned to address his whole squad, looking at each of them individually, before continuing.

"Right. The town has been under their control for a few weeks now, we always pushed back, now we're on the offensive, this place is a goldmine for the UNSC, we can't afford to lose this. We drop at eighteen hundred hours. Come back here fifteen minutes early with your gear. I'll see you then. Get something to eat, or sleep, or say goodbye to your friends. Whatever, just don't get drunk."

Martinez addressed the captain first, nervously. "You know this is my first combat drop right?"

The Captain nodded, "I'm aware, you've been training for this, it's no different."

"Yeah but half a year on Requiem isn't really the same as real combat."

"Well then Martinez you can spend the next three and a half hours training, that's and order."

With a loud groan and an intelligible mutter, Martinez left the room.

Jax waited till the rest of the team left the bay, and addressed the Captain privately

"Sir?"

"Yes Corporal?"

"What exactly do I do sir?"

The Captain sighed, before resigning himself, and took on a soft tone

"Look Jax, I've read your file, you're a decent shot with accurate weapons, but that's not why you're here, is it?"

"No sir, I was appointed her-"

"You can speak Sangheilli, isn't that it?" The Captain inquired this in a sharp tone, impatient and curious.

"More of understand it, I can't speak it per se"

"Really? And why not?"

"Do I look like a split jaw with four mandibles?"

"What about Halsey? Or that Spartan, Olympus? Olympics?" Captain Smith seemed to be getting more energetic speaking about the more famous translating warriors.

"Olympia, and that takes months. It was like a three-hour course!" Jax snapped, slumping in defeat.

Captain Smith was quickly growing tired. Rather than argue, he made it clear he had places to be.

"Look, I know you came from ONI and all, you may think that your hot shit but you're not, and honorable discharge is still getting kicked out, I don't care if what they did goes against your moral codes, you have a job to do, _**Corporal.**_ Dismissed!" Adding extra emphasis on Jax's low rank.

"Fuck you too Sir" Jax muttered under his breath, frustrated with how quickly he was blown off, and the personal jab. _Jesus, you ass._


	3. Chapter 2: Vertical Coffins From Hell

**'UNSC FIGHTER FRIGATE 'FFG-264 BORN IN SLIPSPACE'**

 **Above Armada, 2563, 17:49**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Hour of drop.**

As Jax sat there, suspended in space above Armada, in his claustrophobic, tiny drop pod, he took the time to wonder about the history of the planet. It was a strategic planet, yes. Apart from the Two megacities that were integrated into each other to make one impressive city, the size of one tenth of the planet itself, there was also a mass of trees that made up a forest; dense with wildlife that surrounded the city and most of the planet. The Quarries were what the Covenant and the UNSC were after. The planet had enough materials and resources to create more than a whole fleet.

To Jax it seemed truly beautiful. well, apart from the fact that most of the city buildings were on fire, and the covenant supercarrier that had been shot in half and crash landed into the forest. The wake of the crash left a permanent scar on the surrounding wildlife.

This view reminded him about his ONI days, how many lives had he ended, innocent, covenant and insurrectionist alike, looking from up in the sky, impersonal as he ordered a MAC round into a city, or a shopping mall, or… A school. Shuddering and refusing to let out a tear, Jax prevented those memories from resurfacing, _I'm an ODST now, no under the table deals, no more innocent lives, I'm changing who I'm going to be._

Jax wasn't going to give this city up, not until the whole planet was rid of the alien bastards. The onboard speakers interrupted his brooding. The synthetic A.I. in command of this ship, 'Sister' as she liked to be called, a family member to the whole of the ship's crew, spoke into the drop pod bay; the hundred ODST soldiers, and to his squad.

"Prepare to drop. Brace for falling. Please do come back. Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax."

And then Jax was weightless, floating in space. for a split second. He was a bird, free of gravity.

Before gravity kicked in and sent him plummeting towards the ground's surface, the green and steel face of the planet coming closer and closer, the dark nebula of space, the naval fleet, and his ship, or more accurately his home, flew further and further away.

Suddenly Jax was in the planet's atmosphere. Flames formed at the bottom of his pod, the heat starting to get to him from the bottom of his seat. It slightly warmed the seat compared to the cold interior of the pod whilst in space.

His pod recalibrated, redirecting him towards the megacity rendezvous point. A pod flew adjacent to his. Jax's HUD identified it as the Captain's.

What ONI, and the Navy that briefed the ODST Squad leaders didn't know was that during the fight for Armada and the megacity or cities of Alderwood, the covenant surprisingly had enough time to set up an AA defense grid, however Jax was about to find out first hand.

Suddenly his pod lit up, red lights flashing, the alarm hammering his ear drums mercilessly. All was quiet for a split second before the comms were quickly lit up with chatter.

"Warning. AA detected, scatter! scatter! Hit the brakes!"

 _oh. well shit_

The voice of the Captain was quickly drowning out the others, and the air around him was a light show of plasma bolts, some hitting the other ODST taskforce's pods. Jax did as he was told and twisted the brakes knob. The parachute quickly opening above his pod.

The Captain spoke again. A final warning.

"Shit! I didn't hear about this in the briefing. tilt your pods towards the rendev-"

And then, the first of Jax's squad died. The Captain's pod exploding was a bold display of power. Blue and yellow explosions took jax's attention, the flames flickering against his pod before what was left of the Captain's pod flew off.

 _oh god, the fucking covies._

Warden was the first to speak. Fear was evident in his voice. He talked quickly, and wasn't breathing properly, which only served to further scare Jax's squad.

"Holy shit, was that the Captain? Oh, fuck it was. oh, fuck oh fuck. shit. what was he saying?"

But by then any further attempts to redirect their pods would've been useless. his pod was flying towards a building with incredible speed. Jax tried in vain to move his pod, but his attempts were fruitless.

As Jax's pod came to a jarring halt, smashing against a tall, semi-skyscraper building, resting for about a second, before leaning backwards and falling to ground level, the impact threw him around in his chair. He hit his head violently against the back of his chair, his skull shuddered through his helmet, and Jax's vision went dark.


	4. Chapter 3: Another Loss

**Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 18:26**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Thirty-seven minutes after drop.**

Jax's pod opened with a hiss. A flashlight, bright and unforgiving screamed into his eyelids, rousing him. Slowly he came to, before looking up at his intruders. Melody, Warden, and...

 _Wait, where's the Captain?_

And then his memory came back, the death now fresh in his mind, making his insides feel cold and the hair on the back of his neck stand up, like it was a chilly night, which, in fact it was. Jax remembered they had about two hours of day-time left.

"Ugh, shit, bad place to sleep. I feel like I've been flattened by a tractor. Where's Martinez?" As Jax posed this question he got out of his pod, unclipping his DMR from the right of his seat where it was held, and then, putting it onto the holster on his back, tore his Magnum out of the left of the chair. Turning to Warden just as he responded; Warden was Slinging his MA5D assault rifle onto his back.

"We just talked to him on the radio. He landed about a hundred or so meters from us. He'll be here in a minute. Your pod's location is on our maps. We have to wait here until he arrives." Warden unpolarized his visor as he said this, locking his gaze onto the tower before them.

"I have a bad feeling about that though. They could be watching us, and we wouldn't even know it"

Suddenly the radio crackled. Jax listened while Warden talked to Martinez. Melody kept keeping watch, something ineffective with the M7 caseless SMG, which wouldn't be able to hit much from further ranges. However, Jax kept his skepticism to himself.

[Yeah. I'll be there in a second Warden. Oh, shit is that an elite? Holy fuck those things are ugly]

Martinez sounded panicked. The rookie Had fear evident in his voice. He whispered into the radio.

[it's my first combat drop. They trained me to shoot dummies, not aliens.]

Warden replied in a calming tone, his leadership skills finally coming through. Although he still seemed as panicked as when the Captain died.

[Whether it's a wooden doll or an alien, you still shoot it. Not much difference there]

Before Jax could say his piece, the sounds of shots went off through the radio as well as a dying garble. This only served to worry the other members of the team and brought back the fear in Warden.

[Martinez, are you there? Come in, oh fuck not another]

Then, to his relief, Martinez replied.

[Yeah, I'm fine, the thing noticed me, so I shot it between the... eyes? They do have eyes, right?]

Warden chuckled, less likely to shit himself, before replying: [Yes, they have eyes, where are you? I don't like being out in the open]

[Behind you] the entire squad turned on its heels, guns up at the sound of footsteps. Martinez panicked and put his hands up. Warden chuckled and gave the order to stand down, suddenly deciding to play the role of leader. _That's irking, considering Melody was next in command, but I couldn't do any better._

Warden sighed, glad to be reunited with his team, before piping up. "Alright, that's all of us, let's get off this road before a snip-" Whatever Warden was about to say was lost to the oversized needle that went through the side of his helmet. It was lodged between the flesh, the bloodied tip poking out the other side. Jax saw his eyes unfocus as he died. Jax shivered, before his training kicked in, and then Jax started shouting.

"Sniper! Get off the road. shit. MOVE, NOW!" And then he ran to the cover of a burning car, he slid into cover behind it, crouching as his teammates joined him. Jax noticed something. The needle from the sniper shot that executed Warden was glowing. it took him a few seconds to realize what was happening. _Shit, a mini supercombine, forget they exploded, no dignity in that type of death, unfitting for Warden._

And then the needle exploded, painting the inside of Warden's helmet red, thicker in the bottom, where the blood was collecting. Jax peeked around the corner of the car, trying to get a fix on the sniper's position.

Jax barely had time to get a bead on the sniper's location, having to duck in and out of the cover of the car every few seconds as the sniper kept taking potshots towards him. He quickly stole a glance at the few buildings towards the north; the origin of the sniper's location, A hospital, at least seven stories tall, broken down, crumpling and on fire, several skyscrapers, with perches and ledges, and less than conventional scars of artillery fire, the road between them was dark, littered with cars and dead bodies, next to a campervan a few feet from the entrance to a subway way the corpse of a Mother, holding an… expired child.

The sight made Jax's blood boil, marine's he could understand, at least they fought back, but _civilians_? He wanted to eradicate the Covenant!

Next to the body was a burnt-out troop hog, a single Marine lay crumpled at the steering wheel, Jax could make out the lieutenant insignia on his arm, a bunch of supplies were in the back of the hog, completely useless.

Then he saw it, upon the top of a pedestrian bridge, across the top of the road his team was currently on, a flash of purple, and a red helmet, A Jackal, _Fuck man this is suicide, I can get Melody and Martinez to lay covering fire while I move up, yeah, that'll do it._ Jax acted on his decision before the Jackal moved to a better position.

"Melody! Martinez! Covering fire on the pedestrian Bridge to the North!" Within seconds, if that, his order was fulfilled. Taking the chance to move up while the sniper had to hunker down for risk of losing his face, Jax quickly ran to the car in front of him, then the van to his left, before crossing the street and arriving at the foot of the stairs for the bridge, deciding this would be a bit close quarters for his DMR Jax swapped it out for his Magnum, and strode up the stairs quickly, as the last of his covering fire died down.

Crouched down, and with slow movements, Jax climbed the stairs, trying not to make a sound too loud that would scare off the sniper. Jax lined up the shot, before pulling the trigger, feeling the familiar _**Thump**_ of the recoil, he watched the jackal slump as it's helmet flew off accompanied with a red mist.

Jax called his teammates over the radio, "Okay, regroup, we need to gather a plan before moving to the rendezvous point, here, I'm sending it to your HUDs" Jax rushed down the stairs, before vaulting over the car, and arriving at Warden's corpse.

Martinez was collecting the Tags from Warden's body, and switched his SMG for Warden's MA5D assault rifle, Jax didn't complain, He was better with the rifle, rookies spent the most time training with them, but he collected the Tags from Martinez, looking at them before placing them in the pouch inside the front of his chest armour. _Jack 'Warden' Cosgrave, so that's what your name is, you never told me on requiem._

He glanced at Martinez as his stomach rumbling disturbed the silence they were having in the loss of Warden, he sighed, before checking his backpack was securely attached to his back, Melody took note and did the same, and again, Martinez's stomach rumbled, however Jax couldn't resist to make a snide comment.

"Jeez Martinez, three hours before the drop wasn't enough for you to stuff your stomach? Sounds like a whole Fleet in there!" He smirked, though it has hidden behind his Visor.

"Uhm Lee, that wasn't me…" Martinez said with a worried tone, Jax would've normally brushed the comment off as saving face, if it wasn't for his tone, Suddenly, all team members were alert, scanning the area for whatever made those noises, the roar of a Brute, followed with a pack of Grunts rushing them from the direction of the deceased sniper answered their silent question.

"In Cover, now!" Jax ordered, taking calculated shots at the grunts rushing them with his magnum, he hadn't thought to switch to his DMR, and was currently too busy to do so now. With the combined efforts of the team, they managed to dispatch the Grunts, however Martinez had taken a glancing hit to the helmet, as the left side of it was burnt and melted with plasma damage.

"Wasn't there a Brute?" Melody managed to ask before being backhanded with the force of a freight train by said Brute; who had sneaked up on her during the massacre of his pod, she flew through the air before making contact with Jax, both of them falling to the ground, the brute laughed, A vile noise from the back of its throat, before advancing on Martinez.

The ODST in question was behind a burnt-out car, emptying his clip into the Brute's shields, ducking down, to reload, and attempt the process again. The Brute, instead of going through the hassle of climbing over the car to deal with the solider, simply kicked the car Martinez was using as cover. Whatever happened to the man was not his biggest concern right now, despite the scream of pain which went silent as quickly as it was voiced. As the Brute turned around, and looked Jax dead in the eyes, a sly grin made his face look even uglier than legally possible.

Jax knew that reloading was too timely, as he was splayed on the ground, with an unconscious Melody on his lap, and a dead Warden by his side, he took the easy option. Leaning across his former friend's corpse, he grabbed the pistol attached to his hip, pulled it on the Brute, and fired at the head. The Brute's shielding had only started to recover after Martinez had taken it down, so three shots quickly killed it off before it could flicker up again, the next few shots entered the Brute's brain, and terminated the Behemoth.

With a loud groan, he shifted his uncomfortable dead-weight partner off his lap, and pushed himself up, grabbing the two ammo packs off Warden's corpse and adding them to his own.

Standing up Jax walked over to Melody, Jax was going to check for a pulse but has no need seeing the soft rise and fall of her chest _still breathing, thank god._ He lightly slapped her helmet, once, then twice. Seeing her grunt in coming to consciousness, he grins, relieved, and chuckles. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

A moan, before she replied, slurred and slow; "fuck you, with the way my body aches I'd rather be dead." She stared right at him, or at least he thinks so, he can't see through her helmet. Melody pans her head to the right, before whispering, "Martinez… is he?" her voice laced with worry.

Jax shakes his head, clearing up her mood, and points to the car Martinez was behind before he was flung with it into the junk of the abandoned highway. "Haven't checked yet, need your help moving that car." Extending his hand out to her, Jax pulls her up as soon as she grabs it, and together they walk to the aforementioned car.

"Martinez you up?" Melody asks, moving around the car to catch a sight of the trooper. "Yeah, I'm here, help me out, would you? Can't feel my arm." The only response the two get, Melody looks at Jax, to which he shrugs and nods towards the side of the car.

Walking up to it, Jax grabs the car from the side, with her next to him, and they pull the car from the wall it was flung against, unpinning Martinez from his captivity, with a shout he gently stands up, his armour a mangled wreck, his helmet twisted, but intact.

 _His arm is bleeding_. A gnarled piece of his shoulder pad had cut into his arm. Looking at the protrusion, Martinez grabs it, before ripping it out of his arm with a whimper, before he can do anything else Melody is by his side, using a Biofoam canister to seal the injury.

"That should last until we find a UNSC outpost here. God don't do anything stupid again, you promised!" She starts off with a shout, lecturing the reckless soldier, before softening up, concern and sadness evident in her voice. Wrapping her arms around Martinez, who looks down at her, before returning the favor.

Together the three of them walk towards the rendezvous without much further incidents, conversing about the mission.

"You're all okay right?"

"You tell me."

 _Hmph_

Melody turned to Jax, pointing to him and saying; "Who made you leader? You do know I outrank you right?" Jax knew this, and didn't want to start a fight with his remaining squad mates.

"I know, I'm sorry, we didn't have any time to organize." Jax muttered

"You were with ONI, right?"

"yeah, I was."

"You probably know more about this stuff than I do, taking charge and all that."

"Not really, I've never been one to give orders, I've always been one to follow orders, I left because I started questioning the ones I was given."

"Well you can learn how to now." Melody ordered with finality. _And that was that._

A heavy silence rained down on the three of them, further reminding Jax of his two missing squadmates. With about 500 meters to go Jax felt the sadness creep into him. He'd only been part of the squad for a year, Martinez half that, but Jax still felt both Warden's and the Captain's death in his heart.

A few minutes of silence was all they needed to get to the outpost, and it wasn't a pretty sight. The outpost was rather a safe floor in a building of flats, the whole floor being converted into an armory, radio room and emergency medical bay. The building itself was on fire. The window of the safe house _House? Flat? Floor?_ Was broken. Jax didn't fail to see the bloodstains on the cracked glass, and crumpled in a heap, with bones broken in every angle, was a marine on the broken roof of a car at ground level.

"Do you think the fall killed him or?" Martinez said, looking at the bag of broken bones in a marine uniform, Melody had already gone into the building, clearing out the ground floor before waiting for what was left of the squad to join her in getting to the safe floor. Jax, always one to find answers, walked up to the body of the marine, prying the helmet off what deformed part was called the head, and extracting the recorder chip, before plugging it into his own, watching the last moments of the marine.


	5. Chapter 5: A long way down

**Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 16:46**

 **Lance Corporal Jay Heather, 23** **rd** **Marine Regiment.**

 **An hour before drop.**

Jennifer, The Staff Sargent, and John were sitting cross legged on the couch, John, reading a book with one hand, twirling his pistol by the grip in the other, Jennifer was checking her weapon, most of it disassembled on the arm rest next to her, looking up, she grabbed John's pistol, before placing it in his lap, John didn't look up from his page, rather grunting as a form of communication.

Jade was off in the armory, as her Battle rifle had jammed earlier, and she couldn't see the problem without taking it apart, a tricky thing to do on the battlefield. Jay himself was for the most part looking out the window, the radio had been going off non-stop, sorting out requests, reinforcements and useless chatter was quickly becoming a tedious task, reminding him a lot of his school days, having gone to Gene Empire, a prestigious and unforgiving school that demanded the best of him, there he had met Jennifer.

The two were near inseparable, having given a relationship a try, but ultimately settling for friends, Jay would be lying if he said he didn't feel a twang of guilt looking at Jennifer and John making out in the corners of corridors. The two had ended up joining the army together, pulling each other through boot camp, a form of companionship so strong Jay felt no resentment when Jennifer had been promoted to Staff Sargent over him.

"Fucking shitty gun, John, get over here, I need help, please!" Jade could be heard from downstairs, forget next door, John for his part returned with an unenthusiastic 'yeah sure.' As John left the room Jade came in, strolling over to Jay, from behind she leant her arms on his shoulder, and rested her chin on his head, her long bright red hair obscuring his vision.

Brushing her hair out the way, he reached up to pat her head, before continuing to decode the messages coming through the radio, Jade helping to decode where he couldn't. Having been part of this marine family for three years Jay knew everyone's habits, and slowly they fell into a lull of work.

 _ **Thud. Thud. Thud.**_

A knock on the door, Rapid and continuous, John being the closest, jogged over to it, opening it up while shouting; "Yeah yeah gimme a sec, Wait a sec will ya." Swinging it open Jay felt his heart drop when a Brute's hand grabbed John's helmet and squashed it like a bug. Blood red liquid flew everywhere.

"Contact! Fuck 'em up." Jennifer barked, failing to show much emotion like always, grabbing the pistol as it was the closest weapon to her, Jade ran into the armory, while Jay stood up and grabbed his shotgun from the desk.

"We should've fucking checked!" Jay shouted, firing a shot into the Brute, who for the most part did not care. Jade ran up to him with a combat knife, he simply grabbed her by the neck and threw her through the door behind him, the scream indicating towards reinforcements, with the two of them it was unlikely he would need it.

Running as fast as a Brute could it slammed its gravity hammer at Jennifer's body, she flew through the adjacent wall into the medical bay, Jay didn't hold out for her survival though, those things didn't have to touch you to kill you, the Brute turned to him, letting out a loose snarl.

A Shotgun round to the face was the answer it received, Jay barely had time to cock it again before the hammer slammed into the ground in front of him, sending him careering through the window, whilst free falling to his death at a rapid pace Jay was reaching for anything to hold onto, before slamming into the roof of the car with a sickening _Crack._ The recording chip continued for a second, before the screen faded black.

 _ **In less than a minute the Brute had cleared the floor.**_

 **Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 19:44**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **two hours after drop**

Jax, along with the rest of his squad stood inside the flat floor. Having given the recording chip to Martinez and Melody in turn, Martinez had looked queasy, his face going green, outside the door there was no sign of Jade, a smear of blood leading to the stairs the squad had walked up, the elevator was out of order, the doors busted in and the elevator lying broken at the bottom of the shaft, having fell from a higher floor, using his flashlight Jax could see blood leaking out from the mangled wreck of the doors.

Inside the flat floor what was left of John was crumbled in a bloodied heap, the flimsy scrap of his helmet oozing blood, the same of which painted the walls.

"Martinez, check the medical wing, the Staff Sargent should be there, Melody, patch him up too." Ordering them away from the rest of the room, going into the armory Jax found what he expected, pieces of flesh, presumably from John, checking the weapons locker he saw ammunition and a few spare guns, he was about to reach for the key when he was interrupted.

"Holy shit Jax she's breathing, get in here quick." Jax sprinted to the medical wing, and on the floor, was Jennifer, a pleading look in her eyes. "Hey, are you alright, we'll get some bio foam, where are you hurt?" Melody asked her in a soothing tone. Jax had his apprehensions, seeming rather hesitant.

 _She should be dead, and not by the hammer blast._

Jennifer crawled away from Melody as fast as she could, which happened to be painfully slow, whimpering and trying to open and close her mouth, coughing up blood in the process.

Martinez went to fetch a canister of Biofoam from the medical closet next to the wall. Jax had a lightbulb go off his head. _The window!_

"Martinez, Melody, look after her but keep your wits about you!" was all he shouted, getting a very curious "What do you mean by that Jax?" from Melody, before sprinting to the next room, the window that jay had fallen out off, he peered out of it, looking at the tiny carcass from up in the tower, before stepping back a few steps and putting himself in the shoes of the Brute.

 _He couldn't have missed her, even from this angle you can see her body, and the way the pistol is lodged in the wall suggests he kicked it out from her hand._

"Melody, here now."

"Martinez keep up the pressure! I'll be a second."

Seconds later Melody stormed in, pissed off beyond all content.

"The fuck do you want Jax? I'm trying to save her!"

Jax squirmed, not being used to a leadership role he didn't know how to deal with outspoken people.

"Look, I know you understand how Covenant tactics work…" He trailed of, Melody however, seemed to have the anger in her evaporate, suddenly becoming prouder of herself with a smug look plastered on her face.

"I have an Understanding, inside and out, why?"

"Have they ever been known to lay traps?"

"The fuck do you mean Jax?" A curious, and scared tone could be found present in her voice.

"Look, this is where to Brute was right? After sending Jay out the window, he must've seen her, she was hit with the hammer right, or the force of it, the pistol flew with her, and this is just a guess but, I mean, I could be wrong for al-"

"Get on with it Jax."

"So, she survived the hit, reacting on adrenaline alone she reaches for the gun, maybe she gets a shot off, he kicks it out of her hand, that's why it's stuck in the wall right?"

"Yeah" melody said, drawing out the word in understanding.

"So why isn't she dead? The Brute could see she would bleed out anyway, did you see the stitching on her arm? It was jiggered with no sense of care for the girl."

 _Something doesn't add up, they wouldn't leave her here, they're not that._

Jax could see the realization in Melody's face, especially when Martinez called out, "Guys, her arm is bleeping!"

"Get DOWN!" Jax ordered, diving for cover as he was flung towards a wall with the force of a small blast.


	6. Chapter 6: Calm before the siege

**-10 minutes later-**

Waking up to a scream of an alarm, Jax sat up, grabbing his pistol from its holster and bringing it up out of reflex, he took a second to assess his surroundings. Melody was in a bad shape. Her visor broken; shards littered the floor everywhere.

With a groan he got up, his body sore from the pain. Feeling the burn of plasma. _Shit! Martinez!_

Limping over to the medical bay as fast as he could, Jax found the blood splatter and burned remains of Jennifer. The Biofoam still part of her body, or at least what was left of it.

In the wall was Martinez, miraculously still alive. His armor covered in plasma burns and blood. Some flesh and a tuff of hair was stuck in the melted part of his chest piece, Jax grimaced at the sight.

 _Fuck I remember ONI telling me about these trap tactics, used by the innies first, I should've realized sooner!_

"Ughn, fuck. Oh god." Martinez started moving his head, looking to Jennifer's carcass, to Jax, "Gimme a minute Jax." Was all Martinez said, before he threw off his helmet and throwing up onto the floor.

Leaving the man to himself Jax went back to Melody, carefully prying the helmet from her face, he gave her a nudge on the shoulder, not wanting to cause any injuries. When her eyes fluttered open Jax gave a sigh of relief.

"You can't get rid of me yet." She said with a smile, then grimaced as she tried to get up.

"Oh, fuck that was a bad idea." She moaned, discomfort becoming evident, only further worrying Jax.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?"

"No, just sore, really really fucking sore."

"Oh. Well Martinez is being sick next door, you can check on him if you want to see what's left of the Staff Sargent stuck to his armor, or on the floor."

"Fuck don't be too graphic now; I'll be sick too. Is the armory key still intact?"

"I'll worry about that, just get to Martinez." Jax chuckled, quickly becoming a parent to his two remaining squad mates.

Offering Melody a hand Jax was surprised when she waved it off and, on her second try, stood up and walked off to Martinez, playing with her helmet in her hands.

Finding the key to the armory intact was probably the best thing to happen to Jax all year, apart from his last OP with the squad, where Warden had singlehandedly killed every Insurrectionist about to hurt a squad mate, earning his title as Warden, they had joked about his amazing luck, with a poignant tone Jax realized it seemed like his luck had run out.

The team had received Martinez, the recruit to go along with the Captain's promotion.

That was half a month ago now.

Opening the caches Jax was relieved to find an ammo bag for his DMR, and with a good eye, he spotted a cache hidden away under the weapon smith table, bending over and looking under the table, he noticed an empty knife holster.

 _Probably the one Jade used. Fuck; four marines in less than a minute._

Pulling the cache out, flipping the switches and prying the heavy lid open, Jax was surprised to find an ONI Recon helmet, used for specialists in the field.

 _That's weird, this was probably an ONI safe house converted into an outpost for the war, kinda convenient to find a helmet here so soon, no complaints though._

And then to his right, Jax saw the most beautiful thing he would see for a while.

A M739 Light Machine Gun, commonly referred to as the SAW.

Next to it were three full drum mags, and a warning sign pointing to the SAW, reading; 'WARNING: Heavy object, 9.6KG. Do not drop."

Chuckling to himself he picked up the ONI Recon helmet and unlocked the cage to both the SAW and its magazines. Walking over to his two remaining teammates he chucked the helmet at Melody.

A muttered "Thanks." Was said in reply, Martinez was up and about, looking significantly better with no vomit coming out of his mouth.

"There's a SAW in the armory, unlocked the ammo too, there's some for the SMG too if you want it." He pointed over his shoulder as he said this, Martinez just smiled at him, before pushing past him towards the armory, Melody joining him, while he remembered Jax took a Med kit from the medical bay, before walking over to the window.

Looking out one more time at Jay, and the fall he must have endured, before shaking his head and looking at the door.

 _I fucking promise you Jay I will find Jade, I'll make sure she's safe for you, don't you worry._

Martinez emerged from the armory, grinning from ear to ear with his new weapon, the magazines strapped to his utility belt, Melody came out with her new helmet, easily looking more intimidating and stealthier, carrying two extra SMG magazines.

"Let's go, we need to find that Jade girl and report back to that new F.O.B. they're building, on me troopers!" Jax didn't wait for a reply, choosing to walk down the stairs at a decent pace, keeping his gun up at all times, using the radio in fear of being overheard.

[They think they've killed us, but are probably sending someone to check, be safe and be smart.]

It took them around nine minutes to sprint up the stairs, walking down it wasn't going to be much easier, cursing the loss of an elevator Jax prepared himself for a tedious journey.

[I thought I heard something.] Came through the radio, from Martinez.

[Everyone hold.] Jax ordered, reaching for a grenade from his belt, he hovered his thumb on the button, and slowly took a cautious step down the stairs. They had reached about the fifth floor, and were about to leave the building.

 _Why can't it ever be so easy?_

There was a Brute growling at the group of Grunts following it, barking orders with one hand, it's other gripped tightly on it's gravity hammer.

 _There you are you fucking fuckwit._

"You two, get over there, we'll exterminate these vermin and be on our way." The Brute growled, the two Grunts it growled at obeyed its orders without hesitation.

[On my mark, jump down and open fire.] Jax ordered to Melody and Martinez, receiving two head nods in reply Jax knew he was ready.

He jumped down the staircase, pushing the button on his grenade and shouting; "Oi you hairy fucking walnut!" Throwing the grenade at the largest group of grunts; he rolled out the way of plasma fire. [Guess that's the mark.] was muttered over the radio as Martinez and Melody started dispatching the group.

When Melody stopped to reload a handful of Grunts and the Brute was left, Jax leveled his DMR and started shooting it.

"I'll turn you into a fucking floornut."

"Vermin, there will be no honor in your death." It growled at him.

 _When were you hairy beasts known for honor?"_

Jax shot the Brute in the face, only to have its shield absorb it.

"I have come too far to die here; you will be dealt with later."

 _Coward._

The Brute threw its spike grenade at Melody and Martinez, only to be shot out the sky by Jax's quick reflexes. The Brute jumped down the broken elevator shaft.

"Shouldn't the thing of gone boom by now?" Martinez asked, hiding behind the corner.

Melody poked her head out. "Let's get out of here, I don't want to risk it."

A dud was always a saving grace on the battlefield, unless the grenade belonged to you.

The walk down to the exit was tense, rifles ready and pointed to fire. Martinez gesturing with his SAW, which he had already taken a liking to. "Martinez, I swear, get that gun out my face." Melody said with irritation after Martinez pointed out a fire exit, with his gun.

"Don't you talk to her that way." Martinez pouted, cradling his weapon like a baby.

"Both of you, shut it, I hear voices." Jax whispered, and soon they all did.

"Is that Jay?" A churning sound was heard, before the recognizable sound of a person vomiting.

"That's a shitty way to go, come on Kait, if he's gone, I can't imagine the rest of the squad is much better off."  
The ruffling of bags was heard before a reply.

"How can you be so calm, we were a lunch break away from being posted here, that could've been you or I crumpled like a paper ball."

Jax chose this moment to reveal himself to the voice, granted he had long since realized they were human.

A pair of marines were in a heated conversation, only dying off as they realized three new presences.

"Our Squad didn't do much better did th… The rest of the sentence trailed off on the tounge of the still unknown marine, while the other stood gawking, she smelled of vomit and blood, then again Jax didn't think his squad smelled much better.

"Troopers, ODST Corporal Lee, Martinez and Maddie."

"O-oh right, right, uhm, that's Kait-Kaitlynn and, I'm Charlie. Sir? Sir!" The marine was more nervous than Maddie when the Captain returned drunk from shore leave.

It hurt to think about that.

"Call me Jax, Here's the record chip, from Jay's helmet, it's not pretty, Rifleman Jade is currently being held captive, we're searching for her now, if you want to follow."

"Uhm sure, let me ask Kai- "

"We'll do it." She confirmed for him.

"You'll have more chance surviving with a battle hardened, ruggedly handsome ODST." Martinez chuckled.

"Not sure who you're referring to, but he does sound nice." Melody snapped back.

"And here I thought you loved me." Martinez teased.

"Stop acting like preteens and let's go." Jax ordered, before turning back to the marines, "What unit are you guys from?"

"88th Recon."

"19th Shock Troops Battalion." Jax replied.

"Looks like we're all replacements," Melody muttered.

"This many years into the war, we're replacing replacements." Kaitlynn replied.

The mood turned sombre after that.


	7. Chapter 7: The Siege

**-20:24pm. Somewhere in AlderWood-**

The pair of new Marines were a great pair of trackers, from bloodstains to the signs of struggle, they had been catching clues the ODSTs had completely overlooked.

Of course, the ODSTs have to pay the favour forward and save the Marines lives more times than they could count, just so they didn't think they were better than them or anything.

The newly introduced group came upon a makeshift covenant base, from the remains of an annexed police station, burning fires and scorch marks were present across the building.

The police station itself had been boarded up with wooden boards over the windows and steel grates over the front door, obviously the previous human occupants had underestimated the strength of the covenant, as the wooden boards had plasma burns all over them, some were on fire from where the plasma had lingered enough to start a flame, and the steel grate itself was melted. The glass windows in the middle revealed a staircase that went from the bottom floor to the second, three stories in total including the ground floor, and the left side of the building was all but rubble, the Covvies had wisely chosen not to hold up there.

Fire was currently being exchanged between the Covvies, held up in the police station, and a squad of Marines, two ODSTs and five Alderwood police officers. The human side of the conflict was currently hiding behind cover on the street, occasionally providing cover fire as the two ODSTs moved to flank.

"Martinez, stay here, work on the Jackals on the top floor, the rest, with me."

As Jax as his team crept towards the back of the base, a single shot ran out, a sqwark let loose and a beam rifle fell to the ground, immediately comms ran amok.

[This is Bravo 336, 19th Battalion, identify yourself.]

[Corporal Jax Lee, salvaged a squad, no callsign, 19th, good to know you're still alive Kess.]

[Jax? Oh, shit we saw your squad lead get shot out the sky, we can talk later, help us with this.]

[Move two cars lengths behind, you'll link up with us, currently two ODSTs and two Marines, Martinez is back covering fire.]

[Roger, we're coming.]

Soon the two ODSTs crawled out of sight, moving to the left of the building, before sprinting a few meters to the right of Jax's squad. Looking around the quickly spotted Jax and jogged over.

"We've got three, now two Jackals holding up the top floor, keeping us pinned, and we've spotted at least two Elites, four Grunts and a Brute inside, we believe the Brute to be on the top floor, and Elite on the first floor, and the last with the Grunts on the ground floor." Kess relayed, merging her IFF squad tags with his, Jax remembered to do the same with the two Marines he picked up.

"Alright, get two of your Marines, and we'll assault the building from two sides. Good to see you too." Jax said dryly. The mention of the Captains death had soured his already shitty mood.

As two Marines made their way over to the group, hunched over and moving from cover to cover, Jax started checking his weapons, after the two arrived, Kess started with her plan.

"Front door is weakened already, all we do is go in, execute according to our room breach training, and we won't get taken out from the snipers thanks to the covering fire of the rest of the group. Any objections?"

Jax was about to start when the other ODST of Kess's group, her IFF tag reading O'conn. Piped up.

"Too risky ma'am, one grenade and we're all toast, I say we assault from two sides like Corporal Lee suggested, she finished, nodding at Jax.

Kess glanced at her subordinate, before looking back at the station, and what was left of the group of Troopers and the police officers. Obviously deciding something in her head.

"Alright, you," she pointed at one of her Marines, and Charlie, Jax's Marine. "And you, with me, Lilith, you take the rear."

The now identified ODST O'conn nodded, and together their group rounded over to the left side of the building, out of sight. Jax looked at Melody, Kaitlynn and the last Marine, before switching to squad comm.

[Alright, on me, Melody, you'll be the point man, but I don't want you breaching, not with untreated injuries, go in second, sweep left, Kait, you're third, sweep right, I want the two of you kissing heels, you.] Jax nodded to the Marine. [Go first, kick the door down and clear anything in front of you, the second you're in that door these two will jump in.]

Four acknowledgment lights popped up on his HUD. Martinez was still on squad comm, _heh, I thought that was me._

Jax switched to a private channel with Kess.

[Ready when you are.]

[In two.]

Jax nodded, his blood rushing, remembering he had forgotten to tell his squad to watch their fire in case they friendly fired Kess's squad, Jax hoped they remembered their training. He nodded to his squad, tapping three times on the side of his helmet.

 _Radio silence._

Rounding to the right side of the fortified building, Jax gave the go ahead, the Marine walked up to the door, lifted his leg up and _**Whoosh.**_ Four needle rounds pushed the Marine's body a few feet away from the door, and then all hell let loose.

Melody chucked a grenade through the hole created in the wall, counting down from five through her fingers, Kait was blind firing through the door from the other side of the doorway, and Jax waiting for Melody to get to one, prepared to sprint through.

 _Two, on-_ _ **BOOSH.**_ Smoke wafted out the doorframe, Jax switched his VISR to lowlight mode, and ran in.

Two Grunts in pieces, the wooden table they had overturned was also littered around the room, one jagged piece of it lay in the monitor of a security camera room, the other monitors showing the rest of the immediate vicinity. The third Grunt clipped by blind fire, lay bleeding out, Jax stamped on it's head, as to conserve ammo, the Elite, a minor, was on the floor clutching its stomach, holding the needle rifle that had killed the Marine outside, Jax shot it twice in the head.

Rounding the corner Jax saw that Kess's group had had better luck, two Grunts lay dead and the sounds of gunfire sounded out on the first floor, together Jax's group ascended the stairs, the body of the other unknown Marine lay on the stairs, a plasma burn melted his armour, he was breathing however.

"Kait, go outside and get the rest, see if anyone has medical training, if you can retrieve that other Marine's tags. Melody, stay, stabilize him."

Jax continued up alone, the only sounds accompanying him was Kait rushing downstairs, and Melody's five-day medical course failing her, that and the gun fire upstairs he had almost forgotten about.

Upstairs he was met with the sight of two dead Elites and the other group crowding around Lilith, who was crouched over.

"Everything alright?" Jax asked as he walked over, nodded to the only combative Marine in the building, Charlie, to watch the stairs to the top floor.

Charlie did so, as Kess looked up to Jax. "Took a hit from a spiker, was winded on the floor for a hot second."

Jax was about to comment when Lilith stood up, glancing at him. "I'm good, let's get on with the mission." She insisted, but Kess wasn't having it. "What? You look spaced out already, you couldn't aim right now if we asked you too."

Lilith shook her head, polarized her visor in response before biting back. "And what, you plan to take out a Brute with one Marine and two ODSTs? Not to mention the three or more Jackals in there."

 _She makes a point._

"You make a point." Kess stated, "But you're taking the rear, not having you endanger yourself or us."

 _Heh_

The group crept up the stairs, before arriving at a rather desperate scene, three Jackals, a Brute and two Elites. A minor and major, were all shooting at the Troopers trying to advance to the side of the station, Jax was already very grateful for Lilith's persistence.

[Nade, focus on the Brute and the Elites, Marine, you switch to Jackals the second the Brute is down.] Kess ordered, priming a grenade.

She threw it straight at the Brute, it bounced off his head with a hell of a _**Thud.**_ Before sailing towards the open window, exploding outside, but taking a single Jackal with it.

Jax marvelled at the bad luck, before immediately firing at the Brute, that hadn't recovered from the surprise of the grenade. He then shot the minor Elite. Knowing they were nimbler than the Majors, and that the Sangheilli were too prideful to admit it. The Elite's shields were weak as expected from a minor. And soon with the combined fire it went down, the Major however, had already recovered, pulled out its sword, and rand straight at the group.

"Shit, dive." Kess ordered, she and the Marine doing so.

Jax wasn't so lucky, he got shouldered down as the Elite tackled Lilith down the stairs, and Jax could only expect the worst at close range, but not before the carnage of falling down hard edges in full clunky combat gear took its toll on him.

Jax landed next to the Elite, grabbing his combat knife, he stabbed the Elite straight in the torso, the knife bypassing its shield, he then hoisted the Elite up and pinned it to the wall.

Kess and Charlie came bounding down the stairs, Charlie levelled his pistol at the Major's head as Kess checked on her ODST.

"Wait, don't, not yet." Jax stated, nodding at Charlie.

"We can interrogate the fucker." Jax remembered his days at ONI, and all the nasty secrets he wanted to forget, and how they had saved his life more than once.

"She's alive, Elite missed completely, the fall knocked her out." Kess stated, before standing up, nodding at Jax, and then glaring at the Elite.

Who laughed. It's mandibles leaking it's blue-purple blood over it's scratched armour and Jax's trousers and shoes.

"You think, I would lower myself to that? There is no honour in your kind, you shall never see the great journey."

Jax was stunned at it's mastery of the English language, before responding in kind.

"And neither will you, unfortunately, you don't have a choice on whether you help us or not, because I know you fucks inside and out, and I can sure as hell keep you alive as long as I want too." Jax responded, venom dripping from his teeth as he got close to it's face, the breath of the Elite fogging his VISR and then being removed by its automated systems.

That must have tipped the Elite over the edge, because in a quick flash it grabbed Jax by the neck, and Jumped out the glass window, to their shared death, Jax's being prevented by the quick reflexes of Kess. Who grabbed him by the collar, and they watched the Elite fall to his demise.

"Well shit."

"You owe me one." Kess said as she pulled him in, they both stepped a few meters away from the open edge.

"Nah, what about OP Omen three months ago, that five-man team OP?"

"You owe me three." Kess added.

"Shit."

Jax looked at Lilith, before moving her slumped form over his shoulder, and proceeding to the stairs.

"So, Kess, it's been a while, how're the kids?"

"Grey team? Oh, Ronnie took a sniper round to the faceplate on OP Fenir, survived, hospitalized for the next year, augments and what not, Jess died on the same OP, Insurgents rolled her over with a truck, then strung up her corpse on the hood. Dom and Ethen are alright."

Jax took a while to process the information. While he had never met the squad, he and Kess had talked a lot on OP Omen, and he knew more about her squad than his at the time. He felt the turmoil he usually felt when hearing or seeing a death and was glad he had never felt the death of someone under his command before.

 _Technically that Marine was under your command._

In all the fighting going on since breaching four minutes ago Jax had almost forgotten about the Marine that had "breached" the door, he hadn't learnt his name, but the guilt his him with all the subtlety of a freight train.

"Oh, shit, that sucks."

"Agreed." Kess nodded, her voice showing no emotion, like always, a thing Jax had grown to like about the fellow ODST was her way of speaking, short and to the point.

"What about your squad? Plague squad? I saw your CO get blasted out the sky and wrote you off."

"Oh thanks." Jax said bitterly, before continuing, "Warden's down too, Melody and I are doing alright, Martinez, the rookie is going good too, first combat drop for him."

"Good luck, you'll need it." Kess stated, not bothering to wait for him as she strode down the stairs.

"Oh, where's the rest of Grey team? It's only you and this one."

Kess looked at him, waiting at the bottom of the staircase.

"Grey team was put on hold, healing up and resupplies, I offered to join the five nineteen squad as replacement, couldn't sit out on Armada."

"Shit right, this is your home planet isn't it?" Jax flustered, remembering one of their conversations on OP Omen.

"Yeah, it's only me and her." Kess nodded towards Lilith. "The rest went down in different places, been a hellhole to get here."

"Yeah tell me about it, Warden took an oversize needle to the head, it super combined too."

"Messy, I presume." Kess stopped in the middle of the first floor, the rest of their group were here, the injured Marine was laid on the floor, one of the police officers, presumably and hopefully a medic, was crouched over him, Kait and melody were talking and the four of the remaining squad of Troopers were providing overwatch along with the five police officers, Martinez was watching the stairs.

"Everyone alright?" Kess asked, taking her time to check her rifle and load supplies. The four Marines simultaneously disengaged from the windows, relaxing in the brief respite, although Jax noticed they all still had tight grips on their weapons, Jax took the time to place Lilith down on the group next to the Marine, carefully as not to worsen any injuries, before making his way back to the group. Their squad lead, well former, before Kess showed up, seemed to speak to the group.

"Yeah, we're a'ight. Just waiting on Walter," He nodded towards the Marines receiving medical attention. "And we'll be good, nice to see two other Marines here though, we haven't seen anyone outside our group since we were deployed 'bout a week ago."

Kait spoke up, seemingly boldened by the sight of another Trooper.

"Holy shit, we got deployed just this Monday, me and Charlie here are all that remain of Blue seven two. We were supposed to be backing the Eight fours up in the mountain pass."

The squad lead smiled, a grin reflected by most of his group, a sad, ironic smile. "Well fuck me pretty, Staff Sarge Sangh, nice to meet you, welcome to the Eight fours."

Kait went to speak but was silenced by the Staff Sargent holding up his hand.

"Now I know it's a big coincidence, but it ain't a nice one, we were deployed a week and a half after the invasion, up in the mountain pass, Fwent's Creek, guarding a few bases, Civilian evacuations, well the rich and the ONI staff. We were sick of it, wanted to be down here, fighting, protecting, dying."

Jax had nearly zoned out at the mention of ONI but was drawn back into the conversation by the bitterness in the Sargent's voice, especially at the end of his sentence, out of the corner of his eye Jax noticed the police officers paying attention too, and Kess helping the medic. Next to the slumped body of Lilith.

"And we got a whole lot of the latter, too soon, all but one of the evacuation ships made it, course ONI went first, then rich business men and women, left their families till last, the only reason any of us survived was because we had a warning in the form of a crashed ship with burning corpses."

A second Marine chimed in, her voice solemn and small.

"The screams man, I could hear it over the gunfire."

"We fought back as hard we could." Sangh continued, seemingly not bothered by the disruption. "Fought for us, fought for the civs, the UNSC, and we started losing, our lieutenant had the bright idea of cutting his losses and running, of course without telling any of us and taking the only troop carrier with him. Had all our shit with him."

 _Oh shit, I better keep that to myself._

Melody interrupted, having different ideas from Jax.

"Actually, we found him, made it to the city, not any further, burnt out and burnt alive, hog and supplies gone with him."

"Well fuck that's karma huh? Least he got further than we did, ran our way back here, a three-hour trip fighting the whole way, we had sixteen when we got here, left with thirty. Got split up after an ambush uptown, haven't seen the rest since."

Kait cut in, now that the Sarge was seemingly done.

"What was your objective supposed to be? After you'd finished up there?"

Kess cut in, holding down the conversation.

"For now, our objective is survival, if you guys had stopped yakking about, you'd of noticed the Wraith just outside the building, and the two Ghosts to go with it, keep low, Eight four? Downstairs, check for any info logs, cameras, anything worth intelligence, Blue seven two? Upstairs, I want to know if they spot us, Jax, stay with the coppers, keep Li- keep these guys alive, and you two." Kess pointed to Melody and Martinez, "With me, we're going out, word on the comms is that they're creating a rendezvous uptown, around till eight, we move out from the north side of Alderwood then."

Everyone got to work, the Marines, after nodding goodbye to Kaitlynn and Charlie jogged downstairs, the two previous Marines went back up to the top floor, Jax could hear their footsteps as they climbed, Melody and Martinez joined Kess's Squad comm, before leaving Jax to his own devices.

The cops all mullered around, each trying not to be the first one to break the silence, in the end it was Jax, who voiced his concerns.

"I don't like this."

The medic, who was currently treating the Marine, looked up at the sudden noise, before chuckling.

"None of us do, somethings off, and five guys with pistols and basic firearms training isn't going to help."

Jax gave him a lopsided smile, only to remember his VISR was still polarized, and resorted to talking instead.

"Ah, basic combat training is better than none, once we had to escort civs out of a firefight, one of them tried to be a hero. Picked up a Magnum and shot his damn hand clean off."

Two of the cops chuckled. The rest smiled, one of them checked on Lilith, serving as an assistant to the medic.

"No shit?" the medic started. "We all worked in riot control before being shipped to the north side of Alderwood, we had the biggest riot on our hands three days before the invasion, a guy snatched a beanbag shotgun off of Mike here." The medic nodded at the assistant.

"Shot himself in the chest at point blank, collapsed his own lung, probably died."

Jax chuckled, shaking his head.

"God I'm glad you guys aren't a couple of civs, can't handle the questions, especially since command rarely tells you anything before you leave anyway."

"Glad to know that's not just a law enforcement thing." The assistant, Mike joked.

Jax was about to respond when Mike interrupted him again, albeit with something just a tad more distressing.

"Your friend here is waking up."

As if on cue Lilith immediately sat up, pulling her magnum out in a cold sweat.

"Hey hey take it easy! Blue on blue." Mike waved up his hands in a lazy surrender.

Slowly she relaxed, and a little of the tension left the room, only to be returned by one of Sangh's troopers running up the stairs, looking directly at the two ODSTs and bursting out:

"We've got something you'd want to see here." The Marine beckoned them over immediately, impatient and unnerved, Jax quickly got up from his crouch and strode across the room, Lilith a few paces behind, caught up, giving him a questioning look.

"I'll fill you in in a minute." Jax muttered, in response she nodded, and polarized her VISR, only to be interrupted by the medic.

"Hey, you took a pretty hard fall, you shouldn't be up and moving, come help me with this guy too and then I'll assess you."

Lilith shrugged at Jax, promptly turned around and briskly walked back towards the group, as Jax rounded the corner he heard Lilith inquire into the status of the downed trooper, and if Jax was honest with himself, he was curious too.

As the two hopped down the stairs, Jax turned his full attention to the situation at hand.

"What's happened trooper?" Out of habit Jax checked his DMR again, and taking the clip out, checked his rounds too.

"Well sir, it's better you see for yourself more than anything." And, out of his increasingly obvious discomfort around their idle pace, sped up, nearing leaving the ODST behind.

Jax, slamming his magazine home, slung his rifle across his back and jogged to keep up, rounding the corner and into the security room, the unknown trooper and the female Marine who had spoken up earlier were crowded around the monitor without the shrapnel and wood in it.

"Ah, you're here, good, Sangh told me to tell you what I found, he's gone to check it out, and we'll flag the other ODSTs down when they come back."

"And what exactly is it you found?" Jax questioned, strolling up behind her, and looking over her shoulder.

"This." Was all she offered, pointing at the screen currently cycling through all the cameras, working and not, in what felt like five second periods, the names of where they were in the building appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"And 'This' is?" Jax asked, letting a bit of his curiosity seep into his voice.

"Well as you can see, the cameras are cycling through every camera in this building, including the ones out of commission an- ah there!" She quickly hit a button, and the camera froze.

"This one says it located in the- "

"Garage" Sangh finished for her, appearing out of seemingly thin air and scaring the shit out of everyone in the room.

"Oh, and what did you find?" She asked, the excited nature of her voice was starting to seep into her gestures.

"Two troop hogs and a one standard turret hog, all blue as batshit. Still working, enough for all of us."

"Maybe our luck is starting to finally turn." The other trooper said.

 _Yeah, maybe._

"Keep me posted, we wait until the others get back, and then we head out, hopefully when it's clear." Jax turned to leave but noticed a folder laying underneath the upturned desk in the corner of the room. Walking to it, Jax found the last thing he expected, or wanted to see.

"Shit."

"What is it?" everyone turning to him in unison.

"ONI, fucking ONI file here, smack bang in the middle of shit creek."

"Shit!" repeated Singh, with a bit more bitterness.

"What's so bad about that?" said the trooper, leaning against the wall, looking at the Marine at the desk, then to the two squad leads.

"One thing you learn about ONI, is that where they're involved, there's a lot more going on than at first glance, soon you'll be relocated, acquired by a spook to go on a more than suicidal mission understaffed, and if you make it back you'll be placed in holding for months, interviews, formal interrogations, and if you make it, you get sent out on the front lines like a loose end to be tied up." Sangh ranted, electing to curse under his breath, more so when Jax handed him the folder.

"And if you don't make it?" The Marine at the desk questioned.

"You'll be declared unfit for service and sent to a backend desk job near some swamp water colony pushing papers for the rest of your military career, which becomes lengthier and compulsory. That or ONI put a bullet in your head and call it a day." Jax spoke with dark eyes and trembling hands.

"Well shit." Said the trooper, before walking out the door.

Singh looked at Jax, before walking over. "It's not good, plans here on ONI politics, new leaders and other stuff no Marine should see.

Jax sighed, before making a decision that would make the lives of everyone on this side of the planet so much safer.

"Wrap it, cloth, place it in a civ bag, hand it off at the rendezvous to the commanding officer."

"What? Why?"

"ONI codes, means sensitive information to be burned on discovery by any agents on the field. If an undercover agent got taken out and they weren't looted, files like these would be immediately burned, better destroyed than recovered."

"How'd you know this?"

"Long story." And with that, Jax walked away. Back upstairs to Lilith, the medic, and away from his previous life.

"He seems like a spook." Jax heard whispered behind him, choosing to ignore it, he left.

Back upstairs Jax shared the information with the rest of the team, sending Mike upstairs to inform the others, what had completely slipped his mind didn't escape Lilith's.

"If the file is there, where's the Operative?" She asked, tilting her helmet to one side.

"Ah fuck didn't think of that." Jax muttered, berating himself for the lack of intuition he had showed, a full year in intelligence should've prepared him for this.

"ONI Operative in a police station too? Notice the lack of a body? Including the Cops?" Jax questioned, before looking at the medic.

"What were you guys doing outside your own prescient anyway?"

"We're not from here, we got a call, a SOS, from the sarge here, like you said, didn't find him, or the Operative you've just mentioned, although we didn't know about that at the time?"

"So, what they sent five guys to retake a whole station?" Lilith asked, filled with obvious and well-placed doubt.

"No, we left two days ago, been dodging and fighting covvies since, left with a ten-man squad, actually I have the recording here."

The medic handed Jax an audio log, which Jax relayed out loud.

"Loading, Armada Police corps, Precinct 85, North Alderwood.

Sent to Central Alderwood Police Station, Precinct 94. North Alderwood.

Replaying…..

'This Is Staff Sargent

 _ **Thwip Thwip**_

This Is Deputy Je- Fuck it doesn't matter, send help now! He's Ki-

 _ **Thud**_

Fuck, Dep's Down, What the Fuck do we d-'

Message ends…

Would you like to replay?"

Jax quickly shut the communicator down.

"Oh, fuck me." Mike said, having come back near the end of the replay.

"Something wasn't right, it feels off." Jax stated, fiddling with his helmet as he thought.

"Who's 'He' Lilith asked, rightfully questioning another thing Jax had overlooked.

"Dunno, one of the covvies? It's pretty easy to tell boy from girl."

"that's not it." Jax said, still trying to figure out what was bothering him, around the same time Kess came up the stairs, with everyone in tow, immediately ordering Mike to go fetch the Marines upstairs."

"What're you all crowding around for? We've located 'Hogs? Pack up and go."

"Not yet, listen to this." Jax said, Replaying the message one more time.

"Loading, Armada Police corps, Precinct 85, North Alderwood.

Sent to Central Alderwood Police Station, Precinct 94. North Alderwood.

Replaying…..

'This Is Staff Sargent

 _ **Thwip Thwip**_ "

"Pause." Jax said, the audio log did just that.

"So what? Bunch of covvies overrun the place, what's the big deal?" Martinez drawled.

"No, listen." Jax persisted.

"This Is Deputy Je- Fuck it doesn't matter, send help now! He's Ki-

 _ **Thud**_

Fuck, Dep's Down, What the Fuck do we d-'

Message ends…

Would you like to replay?"

"No" Jax ordered, before looking at Kess. "He. Very specific, emphasis on He. The Deputy sounded surprised too, we may be dealing with an unknown factor here, like they pointed out, there's no bodies, what happened?"

"The discharges, they sound familiar too, somethings up." Lilith said, and it all click in place for Jax.

"Oh shit! That's it, They're gunshots!" Jax said, throwing his arms up, the rest of the group just looked at him.

"And? They fight back, that's what anyone would do?" Charles questioned, getting a nod or two from the group of Marines.

"No, Ballistic gunshots, only, this was a human on human fight, and judging by the fact that the bodies have disappeared, I'm guessing it's our missing ONI friend."

"Fuck." Lilith shouted, grabbing her helmet and throwing it at the wall.

"Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!"

Kess immediately stepped in, grabbing her arm.

"Calm down, suit up, And check your weapons."

A sombre mood had obviously befallen the group, many were looking demotivated.

"I say we find the fucker, that file? Couldn't have been it, he wouldn't have left it there for us all to see if it was." Charles chimed in.

"But what if it was?" Said the medic. "They see something they're not supposed too, ONI fuck eliminates them, sound of all the fighting draws the covvies, by this point the ONI Operative has finished up, disposed of the bodies, and has to scatter before picking up his file."

Jax nodded, finishing up the investigation. "Covvies are confused as to why there's an empty building full of bloodstains, especially after drawn to the sound of fighting, decide to stick around to investigate, they didn't find anything, after all they were still here, two days on we come in and kill them off."

"Fuck." Lilith added.

"What do we do now?" Asked Kait, looking more invested than anyone else, "We can't just forget and move on?"

"The basement." Said another Cop, unidentified in the events leading up to this moment. "All of Alderwood's minor police stations have the exact same layout, this included, in our precinct, we had a basement, underneath the garage, access point is in there too."

Kess sprang to action, gun up and jogging lightly, the mishmash group of fighters followed without having to be ordered, Jax stayed in the front, Melody and Martinez took rear.

Carefully they moved down the stairs, around the corner, moving to the doorway adjacent to the surveillance room. Stacking up on each side of the doorframe, Kess made quick and precise hand gestures, coordinating what they were supposed to do.

 _Melody first, Martinez second, me, Lilith, Sangh._

Kess nodded, waved forward, and Melody surged through.

"Clear."

"Clear left."

Jax swooped in, turning right he assessed the room, the 'hogs, as mentioned were there, along with the access point they were looking for, a busted up heavy reinforced door, and a burnt out keyframe.

"Clear right." Jax said, half whisper, he moved up to the left side of the doorframe, Lilith quickly taking point on the right side.

"Clear rear." Sangh said, beckoning in the rest of their group.

"Fucking panel is busted." Lilith reported, bumping the box in the wall with her shoulder, she looked back at the group, Sangh nodded to one of his Marines, the Marine from the desk, she in turn moved up.

"Alright Riley, this should be a challenge, see if you can work your magic."

Kess, impatient, beckoned over Jax and Martinez.

"See if you can budge the door while they're working on the controls."

Jax took position to the right, Martinez on the left, Martinez nodded at him.

"One, two, three, Push!" Forcing his weight upon the door Jax tried frantically to get it open, only to realize it hadn't budged a bit.

"You'd need a fucking Spartan to open that." Martinez chuckled, giving up and stowing his weapons in the back of the troop 'hog.

"So that's it then? We just forget about this and move on?" Inquired Melody barely contained frustration biting in her tone.

"What would you have us do?" One of Sangh's men shot back, the trooper from the surveillance room.

"leave a waypoint, secondary frequency. Accessible to everyone in this room only. Not even the eyes up in the sky." Ordered Kess with brutal efficiency, before ordering everyone to mount up.

"I've been wanting to ask about that actually." Said Riley, the obviously tech inclined trooper, as she disengaged from the wall. "Haven't heard a single bird in the sky since two days ago, what happened?"

Now that it was pointed out, Jax did realize that not a single member of the UNSC or Covenant had flown over their heads.

"South Armada, been a big air battle there. Fighting for air superiority, UNSC hopes if they can secure that, they'll have a safe zone to set up." Lilith said.

"South side? That's three days flight from here, four from the northest point."

"I knew the city was big, but four days is a lot bigger than I was expecting." Muttered Jax

"Oh yeah, south side is on the other side of the horizon, in fact they have different time zones, we could walk for five days and still be closer to the north than the centre." Riley stated, grinning at him.

"Let's up and go." Kess ordered.

"Onto the rendezvous, Melody bumped his shoulder plate.

Jax took one last look at the door, before climbing onto the turret at the back of the gun 'hog, leaving the drop site with more questions than answers.


	8. Chapter 8 ONI Interupption

**Hey all, MBG here, just a quick reminder, don't be afraid to comment or what not, anything you wanna get in touch or talk about, interesting theories? think you know what's going to happen next? just want to chat? I'll put my replies up here in the next chapter, I know how community interaction can help your investment in a book, please, go ahead, comment away.**

 **sorry about the time between chapters as well, i've been having a bit of a writers block since getting into uni, (currently thinking about dropping out) but all I can say is nothing encourages me to write like three am :)**

 **this is actually really unhealthy**

 **Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 21:09**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Three hours after drop.**

 **Present.**

Jax stood in the rain,vehicle bay to his side, the taskforce having stopped for the night, had created a forward operating base. With Watch Towers, Snipers, Patrols and the lot. He had put a suppressor on his gun as the Spartan had requested, and his Magnum was silenced too.

Melody and Martinez were currently having some much-needed respite, Charlie and Kait were currently in the mess hall, eating the entire base out of food, the Eight fours were being merged into the Blue seven two, making a new squad, that consisted of Jax, Melody and Martinez, the Marines.

Now the cops were getting some required weapons training, having volunteered to stay and join the force, they were being updated with armour and tactics, and now weapons, IMP had originally said no at first, but a lack of anywhere to send them had changed her mind.

Not until a firm pat on his head did Jax realize the Spartan had sneaked up behind him.

 _Fuck they're quiet, patting me like a dog too?_

It spoke again with the unnerving synthesized voice; "You ready? Good, we've been given the go ahead by command, turns out we had more work than I thought, we've been given an assassination mission, Bravo team will recon for us, ONI thinks there will be a HVT in the area. I need you to spot for me, if you're lucky I'll let you have the Sniper." It said in a slightly monotone voice, there was a hint of playfulness towards the end, however.

Disregarding the light tease, Jax felt shivers go up his spine at the mention of ONI, as such involvement normally included a web of lies and deceit, Jax would know, having been drafted into ONI at eighteen, before moving into the ODST corps, at the ripe age of nineteen, now a year later he still had reservations about the shady organization.

"Oh... Sure, ONI..." Jax said with wavering conviction, moving towards the warthog they were issued, he was stopped by the Spartan, "Look, I know ONI aren't the best of people, but they know more than command do, if they need something odds are it's important if it's shady I'll do it."

The spartan nodded at him, before climbing into the drivers' seat of the Flatbed. Jax went around to the passenger seat, with a small smile underneath his helmet. _Not every day you get a Spartan more compassionate than some Medics out here._ And then they were off, speeding towards the hills of the jungle, leaving the familiar urban warzone to the wind.

 **-27 minutes later-**

When they finally got there, the two ditched the Warthog, continuing on foot, wading through the lush jungle, past tall foliage, and under the cover of nature, in its many forms. Finally, they came across a cliffside clearing, before the Spartan could set up the Sniper, Jax quickly unhooked his DMR, signalling to the Spartan with gestures of his hands, there was an Elite, hidden in active camo, overlooking the land below the cliff. The Spartan gestured back to him, an ' I've got this ' before creeping behind the Elite, and in one fluid motion, grabbed it by the neck, flung it towards the floor, and curb stomped the alien with the full force of a Spartan augmentation, the alien's head was nothing more than a splatter on the ground and a crumpled, flattened helmet.

"Thanks for warning me." Were the only words said for quite some time, as the Spartan laid prone on the floor, after clearing away the body, scoped in through the sniper on the hive of Covenant activity.

Normally the two would be laid there for hours, if not day at a time, enduring the elements, but today was an ONI OP. And time was not to be wasted, Jax linked up his HUD to the Spartan's scope, using the Smart Scope feature to see what the Spartan was seeing, without the loss of peripheral vision.

In the iconic purple coloured outpost, was an open checkpoint, with a circular base, and curved walls. The Aliens were walking in and out, in the centre a captured civilian was talking to an Elite, _what's a hostage doing all the way out here?_ What struck Jax the most however, was the fact that the civilian, a woman in her late twenties, red hair with pale skin, was in an ONI jacket, looking over her shoulder every few seconds, as if she were afraid of something other than the danger in front of her _._ Jax wasn't the only one to notice this, however.

"Keep your eyes on the Civ, I'll see if there's any way to get her out." The Spartan whispered to him, Jax was staring at the civilian through his scope, confused by her posture, and the behaviour of the elites, before realizing what the woman in an ONI coat was doing so far away from the closest ONI headquarters. "Spartan..." Jax seethed in barley contained anger;

"That's not a hostage." The Spartan in question refocused on the ONI operative, before asking; "What do you me- Oh." Jax saw the Spartan tense next to him, whether it did so it anger or acceptance he couldn't tell. It threw the sniper rifle on the floor, looking towards the covie base.

"So that's what she's afraid of, us, not them, how could she fucking betray us, even this far into the war!" The Spartan shout-whispered, showing the most emotion Jax had seen from it. The Spartan continued, "So this is the assassination OP? Shooting traitors." Lost in how to comfort it, Jax patted the Spartan on the shoulder, voicing his concern. "Hey, you uh, gunna be okay? We can't take them all out y'know?"

It chuckled, before picking up the sniper rifle again, "Yeah, I'm fine sorry, you might want to look away for this." It replied, "You're not going to kill her, are you?" Jax asked with notable reservation.

"What would you have me do?" The Spartan probed, "Go down there and ask her to come with me? She made her choice." It levelled the Sniper, before being interrupted again, but not by Jax.

[This is ONI NightHawk-058, Spartan-063 Stand Down!]

The Spartans' radio crackled to life, startling both war-hardened soldiers.

[Spartan-063 standing down.] The Spartan replied, before clicking something on the side of its helmet, which cut Jax off from the radio feed, presumably, from the way the Spartan's head was moving, it was talking to the ONI operative privately.

A minute or two later, it muttered to Jax. "Fucking 'ell, keep your eyes peeled for an ONI Wasp, we're to provide cover for a deep cover agent."

This relieved Jax entirely, no longer having to worry about killing one of his own. "So that's why she's out here, deep cover huh? How'd you reckon we're going to protect her?"

The Spartan slumped onto the sniper rifle, twisting on its side to look at Jax, "It's not the girl, but the Elite that's deep cover." Shivers immediately went up Jax's spine, combined with how the Spartan looked about ready to murder anything.

The two lapsed back into the uncomfortable silence that enveloped the whole valley. Broken only by the soft whirring of engines as the wasp flying low moved to cover behind the tree line, the pilot, as incompetent as any Jax had seen, flew right over the base, bringing itself to attention.

[ONI NightHawk-058, requesting assistance!] The static did little to mask the fear evident in the pilot's voice, the Spartan quickly snapped to attention, rolling over and laying on its stomach, talking over the radio.

[Spartan-063 here to help, wha-]

[They've got an AA lock on me, quick help me!]

 _Shit_. Scoping in Jax scoured the alien base for any defences. _why hadn't I looked for this sooner? God fucki-, there!_ Pinpointing the Anti Air mobile defence unit, a small crate with a fuel rod cannon attached to the top manned by a Grunt Jax put a waypoint on his HUD for the Spartan to see.

Before he could tell it about the waypoint a sniper shot nailed the Grunt in the head, too late as it fired at the Wasp, knocking out it's left engine it went spiralling towards the ground.

[Shit I'm going down, ejecting, HELP!] The silence of the valley was broken by gunshots and the explosion of a Wasp.

"Fucking hell, get down there, I'll cover you and the Elite." The Spartan ordered him, and without hesitation Jax jumped down, he was noticed as he started making his way down the cliff face.

 _ **Floosh**_ _._ A needler round buried itself into the rock face a few inches from Jax's head, not a second later was a sniper round fired in the direction of the source.

Skipping the last gap on the trail down the cliffside Jax leapt into the fray, rolling from the fall and sliding into cover behind a covenant barricade. Plasma was flying all around him. To his left was a gravel tail leading to the front of the Covvie base, the path littered with crates and other utilities, in front of his was the confused and clustered Covenant, trying to make sense of what's happening, and to his right were a few more boxes, throughout the area was tall grass and a few trees.

A screech from his left alerted him to the two Jackals approaching on the flank. Levelling his DMR he shot the birdbrain in the face, effectively stopping any chance at an impromptu Phalanx formation. The remaining Jackal fled with fear, only to be stopped by a sniper round removing its head.

[On your right Jax, I need to protect the Pilot so you're on your own" Was all the waring he got from the Spartan before a Plasma pistol melted his shoulder plate, spinning to one knee Jax executed a Grunt with a single shot, switching targets he emptied the clip into the Elite next to it.

Behind his crate Jax could see a quarter of the covenant forces head towards the wreckage of the wasp. The base was effectively empty, as most occupants were heading towards him. The Elite and ONI traitor were fleeing however. Reaching for his utility belt Jax threw a frag at the approaching forces, the two Elites and the Jackals evaded. The Grunts weren't as lucky, being torn apart in the following explosion, Jax even saw one Elite get slapped by a flying Carcass.

A sniper round gave him one less Jackal to worry about, But the Elite was what had his attention, reloading on the fly Jax sprinted to the crate parallel to him, rolling another frag across the ground. He swung into cover and waited.

A few seconds later a hailstorm of dust, sand and blood erupted.

Using the ensuring explosion as a smoke screen Jax killed the two Jackals remaining before focus firing on the Elite, destroying it's shields before a familiar _click!_ Was heard. Switching to his magnum he levelled the gun at the Elite only to get tackled to the ground by the agile beast.

"Your journey ends here _**vermin**_ ; I'll look forward to making you scream!" It spoke in a dark and broken English, but perfect enough to get the point across. His gun still in his hand he shot into the Elite's gut, with a roar it fell off him, he shot it once more in the chest to be sure, before fetching his rifle that had flown in the tumble.

A needle round to his position put an end to that idea very quickly.

 _Shitcakes. Pinned down between a crate and my gun with only a magnum, ONI would love this for a training module._

[Spartan, I'll need some help here, I can't get out of this alone.] With a shout Jax ducked as another needle round skimmed the top of his helmet, tucking himself further into a ball Jax blindly fired over the top of the crate, and was rewarded with the sound of a Jackal howling in pain, however terribly close by.

Seconds later a sniper round entered the skull of a Covvie somewhere to the south, taking his cue Jax leaped out of cover, quickly running to his DMR, picking it up as he ran, he did all he could to avoid the hail of plasma fire just missing him from the two Brutes who had peeled off to fight him. Sliding into the cover of a crate Jax overshot by a bit, exposing his chest. Scoping in Jax killed off the Jackal he had hit earlier in its failed plan to flank him, and spent a few more bullets killing off one of the Brutes with a perfect series of headshots. The other Brute had shown some smarts and decided to head for cover, a trait not normally found in their species.

Positioning himself into cover again, he was surprised to see the Elite he thought he had killed off earlier after tackling him was gone without a trace. A faint blood trail upon further inspection. The Brute made his appearance to Jax's left, giving him another surprise before Jax could get a shot off the Brute's head exploded into a red mist, the sniper round responsible for this burying itself into the crate next to Jax's head.

[Fuck! _**ARGH**_!]

[Spartan, are you okay? Talk to me! what's going on?]

[They fucking flanked me.]

Looking up from his spot Jax saw the Spartan slam an Elite's face in with the butt of the rifle, before executing it with a shot to the chest, which at that close range sent the poor thing flying, only to be tackled by another Elite.

Jax watched them both fall off the cliff.

Jax saw the Spartan land on the Elite, crushing it instantly.

Jax saw it get up like nothing happened and rush towards the wasp.

 _Holy fuck_

 _Oh, they're good._

Snapping back to the task at hand, Jax reloaded his rifle, peeking out of cover, there were a few stragglers left, two groups of Grunts, a Brute, and two Elites.

Taking a deep breath Jax flung himself around the corner, putting a couple rounds in the dome of the brute, which did nothing but pop it's shield and piss it off, and alert its allies.

The grunts immediately flocked to his location, switching to his magnum, Jax threw his grenade and levelling his gun, he waited until the grenade rolled into the group, and then popping a single round into it, the initial explosion starting a snowball effect, as the plasma grenades equipped by the Grunts exploded.

Before Jax could safely switch to his DMR the after mentioned Brute appeared out of nowhere, slamming him into the air with his backhand, taking a few good rolls Jax got back into his crouch, took aim and shot the berserk Brute in the eyes.

 _Fuck._

Rolling out of the way of the two Elites that had decided to join the fight, Jax shouldered his DMR, switching to his combat knife, and jumping on the back of an Elite that was too slow to turn around.

 _Piggybacking an oversized nimble warrior feline isn't fucking safe!_

Ripping the Elite's helmet off, and managing to take a mandible with it, Jax managed to insert his knife into it's skull while being whipped around, in the background he could hear the other Elite activate an energy sword as his current one tried to swat him off, roaring in pain.

Jax slapped the combat knife into the skull with his open palm, resulting in another roar and the Elite grabbing his arm, wrestling for his arm back while the second Elite swung at Jax, who barely jumped off the Elite he was riding in time, dragging it's arm into the firing line of the energy sword, cutting clean through, landing back on the shoulders of the screaming Elite, forcing it to the ground, Jax slammed his elbow into the blade, forcing it into the head of the Elite, which dropped dead, there was no time to rest, or reclaim his knife as the second Elite wrapped it's claws around Jax's neck, raising him into the air.

 _Well this isn't- fuck that hurt_

Reaching down to his thigh Jax grabbed his magnum, unloading the clip into the gut of the Elite, which did nothing but flicker his shields dangerously low, and piss it off, It roared in his face, spit and fog pattering his VISR, before spreading it's mandibles in a deathly grin, raising it's energy sword, Jax took a deep breath, placing both of his feet on it's torso and pushing off.

Landing on his back Jax didn't have enough time to get up before the Elite stomped on his lungs, winding him as he struggled to survive.

The threatening _**BOOSH**_ of a shotgun blast put a whole in it's abdomen, the blood spraying Jax's uniform, as the creature toppled on top of him, Jax pushed it aside to look at his saviour.

 _Oh no._

It was the ONI agent they had spied before, the traitor, in her hands a standard issue UNSC shotgun, in pure black, the business end pointed at his face.

"You, being here is no mere accident huh? The other ONI fuck, flying overhead? This isn't a capture; this is an elimination." Jax was speechless, being put down with the facts, understanding the anger, not wanting to empathize with the enemy. "The second I refuse to kill pawns in their game, human pawns, ONI wants me gone? They won't have my body, they'll have yours."

At that Jax immediately put his hands up in surrender, not wanting to die by unfriendly fire.

"Hey Hey Hey, you don't want to do this, trust me, put the gun down, we can talk it out." Jax used one of his fingers to point at the gun, whilst keeping up his surrender. "I don't want to die here today, and neither do you, turn yourself in and the UNS- "

"The UNSC want nothing but loyal bodies to help this fight, their fight, us, me, the insurrectionists here, want nothing to do with it, the UNSC brought this fight to this planet, and we've suffered for it."

"The fight started when Covenant loyalists found each other among the galaxy, after the end of the great war, this isn't a second human-covenant war, this is an uprising we're putting a stop too, we have Sangheilli, Unggoy and all Covvie races on our side, they found this planet, like they found each other, we can stop them from finding any more planets, put the gun down, turn yourself in, help us save ourselves."

Jax was rewarded with a slap round the face with the stock of the gun, jarring him slightly.

"Don't tell me to put my gun down!" The agent ordered, panicked and franticly looking around she grabbed him by the foot and dragged him into the forest, talking the meanwhile.

"Who do you think told them where to find each other huh? The galaxy is a big place, no way Covenant sharing the same belief just stumble onto each other huh, not with a force that size huh. How do you think they found this outer colony huh? The reason it survived and thrived so well is because it wasn't found during the Great war, it was too hidden for that, even the UNSC overlooked it."

"They could get lucky finding the planet." Jax admitted. "Probably communicated with each other though."

The agent laughed, before frowning, setting him down, she took his helmet off, "Don't want you talking to anyone." She reasoned, in the second their eyes connected Jax saw a part of himself, when he first left ONI, and was glad he didn't end up in her shoes.

"They couldn't communicate, ONI took care of that, got technology from the Covenant Separatists after the war, we would've have found them, we could've also posed to be them. They were fed the information, by ONI, more war, more money, more funding, there's a bigger picture going on, and now, every insurrectionist on this planet will know it. And you'll never get the transmiss- "

The ONI agent stopped suddenly, her body tensing up, she looked deep into the forest, distracted by the rustling of leaves, before Jax could even make a move she grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up, and planting the barrel of the shotgun to his collar bone she started shouting to the trees.

"If you don't come out here right now, I'll separate his ribs from his chest."

Jax looked around for a second, wishing he had his helmet, his VISR and all it's HUD systems would be a massive help right now. For a moment nothing happened, and then, out of the bushes, two figures appeared, and ONI pilot, one hand clutching his wounds, something on his abdomen, the other, a raised Magnum. The other figure, the Spartan, holding the Carbine lifted from a Jackal, evident from the blood splattered on it.

"Let go of the man Miranda." An order from the Pilot, The Spartan only nodded in acknowledgment, in the process a large chunk of the helmet came clean off, revealing no skin but the scorched underarmour of the helmet.

"No, you know how this goes, put your guns on the ground, kick them over, and let me go, he comes with until I'm confident I'm home free."

"You'll just take him with you to your Innie friends you've made, quite the force you've got now huh? In your little weapons factory, you got a nuke in there Miranda? Less time in the brig if you tell us." A threat under an insult, whoever this ONI pilot was, Jax really didn't like how he was bargaining with his life right now.

The Spartan said nothing, only tightening its grip on it's Carbine, aiming it at the duo. "Guys, why don't we all work this out? Huh? Guns down?" Jax offered. The plea fell on deaf ears.

"ODST I'm ordering you to shut the fuck up right now." The ONI Pilot took a step closer, and the barrel of the shotgun dug an inch closer into his shoulder blade.

"Yeah listen to ONI trooper, might learn a few things, like how to start and fund another war, playing both sides, my lips are sealed, won't tell you shit about what we have, what we are, larger than you imagine, I'll tell you that much."

"Put him down, or kill him, it all ends the same for you Miranda." The Pilot took another step, out of Jax's peripheral vision, he saw the trigger finger start to squeeze."

"One step more and I blow his insides out."

"Let's test that shall we? Do it Mira! I can call you that can't I?"

"Oh, try it hotshot, him then you, that Spartan will get me. I'm not dumb, but I reckon I could take you too."

And with that the pilot lunged, squeezing a round that deflected off Jax's shoulder planting, and pinged off the side of the ONI traitor, Miranda's Shotgun, who in turn squeezed the trigger.

What stopped her from doing that was the Carbine round lodged solely in her forehead, Jax crawled away from her, as her eyes glassed over, and she fell to the ground.

The Pilot went to stand over her body, before turning back to the Spartan. "Good shoot, I could've done the same thing if not for the wound." He chuckled, which set Jax off.

Grabbing his helmet from the floor, he held it in a vice grip and walked over to the surviving ONI agent.

"Hey Dickhead!" A shout, and a promise of violence.

"What did you call me?" He said incredulously, "I just saved your life!"

"You call that saving my life? You. Shot. Me." Pointing to his shoulder plate, and the bullet mark etched in it, Jax could feel his anger building up.

"Yeah well it's not my fault you're such a pisspoor ODST you got yourself captured- "

Whatever else the agent had to say was lost to Jax using his helmet to smash the agents head. With enough force to break the nose.

The man recoiled, staggering onto his backside. "Fuck YOU!" The agent shouted, "I could have you court-martialled for that, I could have you thrown in the brig! I could," The agent stopped, seeming noticing the Spartan they had both forgotten about. "You! Arrest that man!"

The Spartan shrugged in response, "I didn't see him do anything" it said, to both their amazement, "Far as I'm concerned, I saw you risk the life of a friendly because you were overzealous."

"I, you can't refuse me!" The agent replied.

"Frankly, any means of communication and recording are gone, I could leave you here and leave if I wanted too, both of you get in the hog and we're leaving now."

"I can have you put in the brig too Spartan."

"And I could kill you, Sir."

"So could I!" Jax piped up, only realizing how out of place that was.

The agent said nothing for a painfully slow few seconds, before cursing loudly, and storming towards the jeep, donning his helmet, Jax nodded at the Spartan, who did nothing but give him a simple thumbs up, before strolling back to the jeep.

Jax took a few seconds to bag the ONI body, before scavenging his gear and weapons he had dropped, by the time he had got back to the Hog, the agent was in the back, scowling at Jax, the Spartan was in the passenger seat, inspecting the wrecked remains of it's sniper rifle.

Jax threw the body in the back with the agent, who only started complaining, before hopping in the driver's side and starting the trip back to base.

The drive back was silent and tense, like the calm before the storm.


	9. Chapter 9: Downtime

**Hey hey all, another Chapter up, friendly reminder not to be afraid to comment, it really does help me out! And I'll reply to anything here, enjoy some fluff n world building.**

 **Armada, North AlderWood, 2563, 21:55**

 **Rifleman CORP. Lee, 19th Shock Troops Battalion.**

 **Three hours after drop.**

 **Present.**

Arriving back on base was tense, both Jax and the ONI agent had been ready to explode, once they were cleared into base the agent had jumped out the warthog before Jax had even been able to park it, disappearing into the sea of bodies.

Once the warthog was parked, Jax and the Spartan had been instructed to report back to the Lieutenant, to debrief her on what had happened, why a Navy Lieutenant was in charge of so many Marine Corps members would've been puzzling if it was earlier into the war. These days everyone knew it was because if your chain of command was missing, they were dead.

Jax had decided to swing by the ODST barracks before going to command, immediately upon popping in he saw Kess and Lilith, and other ODSTs next to the vast barracks, glad to see some familiar faces, a few old names that surprised Jax on his memory, he was saddened to see the amount of empty barracks next to the empty names.

"Oh, Jax, you're here? Thought you were dead." Jax turned around at the flippant voice. Kaito an old ODST training mate, who had been the cause of many fights between the two, immediately some of the older ODSTs stood up, ready to intervene, Jax relaxed his muscles, readying for another fight of some kind, Kaito however took notice of this.

"What, you think this is another fight?" Kaito took an unflustered stance. "maybe before today it would've been, but today people have died, friends have died, teammates, family. But not you." Kaito pointed directly at Jax, "I may not like you, at all, but I'm happy to see you're alive, we're on the same side, and that's all that matters."

Jax simply nodded, taken aback by the speech, it was true on some level, before today Jax would've been ready to exchange fists with the man, an unnecessary evil, but after his team mates had died, and ONI had been playing with his life again, however indirectly, Jax was just tired.

Before he could say anything Kaito butted in again, "Command is probably asking for you, just come in from a Spartan deployment." There were a few whistles in the room. "I don't want to be dragged into your shitstorm if you're late." And with that, Jax left, wondering if it was worth checking for familiar faces at all.

Coming into the Command Barrack Jax was greeted with the sight of more armour pieces falling of the Spartans chest piece, and more under suit being brought to light, clear discolouring in the material where armour plates that weighed more than a 'hog had been clamped on for months at a time.

Behind her desk was the LT, pressing her face into her desk, she shot Jax a look, which could only be interpreted as a cry for help, before addressing the two informally.

"First off, when you leave you can clean this shit from my floor Spartan."

"Yes sir." The voice that came from the heavily damaged helmet was only partially modified, the other part being too garbled in broken voice modulator to understand.

"Secondly, I've just had some ONI hotshot dipshit storm in and out complaining about you two, so please, tell me what the actual fuck you two pissed up this time."

Jax took a deep breath.

"We lost the ONI contact you were looking for, no idea if that Elite is dead or alive, another ONI agent, turned traitor was there, hotshot set her off and we had to terminate her before we could either reach an agreement or get more information."

"Ah, Corporal Jax Lee, I presume? You're piss poor as after-action reports, what happened to your squad?"

"We lost our Captain mid drop, our second in command shortly after, our third handed leadership over to me, and I've been keeping them alive ever since."

"Ah, another half staffed ODST squad, as if I hadn't had enough to deal with, fine, take those Marines you brought with you, leave one or two with us, and uh, there's a CQC ODST, in the barracks, uh, Kaito Grenswell? Take him."

"Ma'am; I beg you for anyone else."

"And your pleas are ignored. Take the Spartan too, I need as many Spartans on duty as possible if we're to push south or help the south push here."

The Spartan perked up at that, and in doing so a piece of their armour plating fell off their shoulder.

"Fuck me, and I thought the Navy was falling apart." The LT muttered.

"Look, between the outpost Command and Map study Barrack is the opening to the bunker, we have our vehicle backups there, we've also placed a Mjolnir station there, go stock up on some Gen 1. We ran out of Gen 2 armour, so we've got Gen 1, and updated it to work with Gen 2, the techs call it Gen1.5"

Jax let out a chuckle.

The Spartan reacted to this news with surprise. "The same stuff from reach?"

"Yes Spartan, Same stuff. Upgraded to work with your new armour systems, thrusters, and everything else, you don't even have to ask."

"Does it come with the same systems too?" The Spartan questioned, something that must've been important for the Spartan, but as far as Jax was concerned, it flew right over his head.

"Truth be told Spartan I only know about the Thrusters, ONI doesn't give me clearance, ask the techies there. Both of you, dismissed." A surprising reveal from the Lieutenant, who Jax still referred to as IMP.

"Now get the fuck out of my office, get one of the techs to clean this shit up." The lieutenant gestured at the armour pieces on the floor. "I can't bear to look at you fucks much longer."

His squad were now sharing an entire room to themselves, apart from him. Most of them had gone out on patrol, watch or break until their time to sleep was up, apart from Melody and Martinez. Seeming as they were now a combat-team, complete with a Spartan, four ODSTs, six Marines, bringing the total up to eleven, IMP had seen the need to give them their own callsign, ' _ **Blue nine one**_ ', which Jax thought was a shit name, but it had stuck.

Seeming as Jax's Squad now consisted of twelve people. Jax decided it was fitting to take three other members with him on every deployment, and the others would serve at base, this pool consisted of:

Spartan 063: The Marksman. A soon to be newly armoured Spartan that was a golden shot with a sniper, the teams' long-range specialist, seeming as they were a Spartan Jax decided to only take them on heavy and challenging deployments.

Melody; The Breacher. In the doors first type, stealth trained ODST with a now suppressed SMG, a close quarter medic and infiltrator, Melody's use of stealth made her a perfect choice for after dark and generally 'sensitive' or 'quiet' missions, she had also taken out some of the padding in her armour, making her quicker on her feet and harder hear, but more fragile as a result.

Martinez; Quite simply a Gunner. Wielding a SAW, a large crowd controlling unit, able to provide an immense amount of cover fire and being able to stop advances, making him very versatile in his niche speciality, this made Martinez a great choice for straight up firefights. In armour he had done the inverse of Melody, having put more padding and armour plates on his person, making him harder to put down, but slower and easier to fatigue.

Kaito: Another Breacher, best at room clearing and indoor combat, aggressive and brash, but could happily hold his own, making him a sound choice for tight and urban deployments, whilst he had left his armour well enough alone he was a crack shot with his pistol, Jax could make him a backup Marksman if he needed too.

Charles; A simple Rifleman, the Marine had a standard issue MA5C Assault rifle, and his specialist skill came in his ability to track, if the squad ever needed to do some search and rescue, or destroy, he could come in handy.

Kaitlynn; Was what Jax would call a scout, with the same assault rifle as Charles, and skillset, but she had a beady pair of eyes, and could spot things a mile away that would take some of the other members a bit of time, making her a support type member of the team.

Riley: The tech trooper had been integrated into Jax's squad, which Jax was grateful for, having no one else who could have any tech expertise on his squad meant she filled a large role, she came with another Saw, making her a bit of a Gunner, but her unique expertise made her a specialty.

Sangh: The sarge had requested to be placed under Jax's command, having been trained in both shotgun and battle rifle training, Jax could effectively swap out the rifleman if any specialist troopers weren't needed.

Hightower: The first trooper Jax had briefly talked to in that old surveillance room in the police station, as it turned out he always wore his balaclava, as no one on the squad had apparently seen his face, no one seemed bothered either. He also had the standard assault rifle of the Marine corps, but seemed to excel in firefights, a distraction fighter.

O'Brien: The other trooper from the police station, was trained in Demolitions, He had the standard assault rifle as everyone else, but came equipped with a rocket launcher, and always carried explosive charges with him, again, unique in his services, Jax could use him against armour or on denial deployments.

And lastly Jax himself; The Commander of blue 63. A decent marksman and language communication expert. Standard body armour like most of his team.

That reminded him, he had gotten his teams armour repainted, instead of the white highlights in his ODST BDU, he had it switched to blue, for the Marines, he had them change their IFF tags respectively, and told them they could do whatever they wanted to the shoulder and chest plating of their armour.

His room was the standard UNSC issued trooper room, in the Fireteam Barracks, which Jax was glad for, as he couldn't stand to be near the other troopers, Jax was happier still, as he had a Command room separate to his team. It was furnished with the basics, a bunk bed, a locker, for his armour, and a toilet keycard.

His team had invited him out earlier, but Jax had declined as Jax himself was too depressed to accept their invitation to their room, as they wanted to know what the Spartan wanted him for. In his mind Jax was replaying the ONI Agent's death repeatedly, the way she slumped, devoid of life in less than a second. _Did she know she would die when she betrayed ONI? What would persuade her to do such a thing?_

Before he could think about it any longer, there was a knock at his door, _probably just Melody or Martinez, or maybe Sangeh._ Hoping they would go away if he didn't answer, Jax stayed on the floor, breathing slowly, hoping the helmet would help mask the sound.

The knocking stopped, but he wasn't met with the answer he wanted. Instead of being left alone, a very unfamiliar Spartan stood in his doorway holding a keycard. How Jax hadn't heard the electronic beep of his door unlocking confused him more than the Spartan currently making its way over to him, looking down at him, it spoke, "I can see your body tensing, I know you're awake, sit up."

The Spartan looked brand new, but Jax could tell it was the same one from earlier today, by the same colouring, a primary black, that encompassed most of the Spartan apart from the forearms and legs, and a secondary blue, the same blue used by his fireteam, and the '0-63' painted across it's collar, the Spartan's armour itself was recognizable instantly, the armour of the Spartan Threes' and to some extent, Twos' and Fours'.

The helmet Jax immediately remembered from his ONI days, an old Mark V scout helmet, with a blue visor, looking down from that Jax couldn't tell what type of chest piece it had, only that there was a netting around the neck, and it also covered a bit of the Spartans' back, on it's right shoulder it had a thin strip of armour, mounted onto which were three sniper rifle bolts.

On its thigh was a softcase, Jax knew that much, he had one himself a few months ago, it had gotten shot off by an Insurrectionist and Jax had never seen the need to get another.

It had wide kneepads, and the armour plating on it's left shoulder Jax had never seen before, it also had something on it's wrist that Jax was sure was some sort of device.

Doing as he was told, electing not to piss of a Spartan in his self-pity, Jax quickly got up, surprised as the Spartan took off Jax's helmet, exposing his face to the cool air of his room, it put his helmet on the top of his bunk bed. Sitting down next to him, it spoke in a calm voice, or as calm as something as that synthetic and filtered could be.

"Look, I know what happened out there was, not normal, but we're soldiers, we do our job no matter what it is, they'll kill you if you tell anyone what you saw, you understand?" With a sigh, Jax replied; "Yeah I got it, I won't tell a soul." This apparently wasn't good enough.

"No, promise me, look me in the eyes and say that." Conviction was present in its voice, something Jax knew would mean he would be held to this promise.

"Kinda hard when I can't tell if you have a face." Jax muttered, his comment laced with sarcasm. He did not expect the result.

In a swift move, the Spartan moved its hands up to it's helmet, with a _hiss_ of released air, it took of it's helmet, revealing a woman's face complete with sea blue eyes, full lips and topped by bleach white combed over hair, the left side of which was completely shaven. It was currently pulled back into a loose ponytail, that was surely longer than regulation would allow, not that Spartans would adhere to that. She had surprisingly pale skin, possibly an effect of staying so long under a helmet Jax did not know. The surprisingly normal looking woman had freckles, dotted on her face.

"Go on, promise me." She urged, breaking Jax out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure, I promise." Jax said it as more of a surrender than anything else, but it seemed good enough for the Spartan, who nodded, handing Jax back his helmet.

Noticing Jax's staring at her new armour plating, the Spartan chuckled, showing him the device on her wrist, she answered his questions before he could ask.

"It's called a UGPS, it's a universal GPS system, not only displays the locations and objectives you set, but can help locate too."

"That's really helpful, oh, and the shoulder plate?" Jax asked, looking at the beefy design on her left shoulder.

"That's a CQC Plate. Really helpful as a sniper, it's large and near my head, if someone tries to counter snipe me, there's a big chance it could hit this plate instead."

"Now that's smart. The chest piece? With the cloth?"

"Oh, just a patrol piece, I like being light on my feet and harder to spot."

"Oh, that's everything, thanks, for explaining, and checking up on me too I guess."

"I came here to give you the deployment details from Command."

"Oh."

The Spartan chuckled again, before handing him a file she pulled out of nowhere, and then turning to leave, she stopped at the door, going to put on her helmet, she paused for second.

"If you have any questions, just ask."

"I think I'm good, thank you."

"No worries Jax. See you around."

"Actually, I have just one question."

The Spartan turned around in front of the doorframe, holding her helmet over her head, a questioning look written on her face. "And that is?"

"What's your name?"

A Smirk appeared on her face, that developed into a full smile. "Valerie, 063."


End file.
